Indispensable Books

David Frum:

Not so long ago, very smart people invested considerable energy producing lists of indispensable books. In the 1950s, the popular philosopher Mortimer Adler (yes, there really used to be a category of "popular philosopher") persuaded the Encylopedia Britannica company to publish a 54-volume anthology of these great books in a uniform edition. (here's the list)

Half a century earlier, Harvard president Charles Eliot had compiled his famous "Five Foot Shelf" of reading sufficient to constitute a liberal education in itself...

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