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GREAT
BOOKS READINGS
Below you will find the four year reading list for
our Great Books Program for the current academic year, beginning
with the Greek year of the program. In addition to the readings
and two hour discussions each week, the students write papers which
are evaluated, marked, and returned to them. For students on our
regular track the papers are generally about 800 words in length
and there are two assigned each semester. Our college track students
write one 1500 word essay each semester in addition to weekly writing
assignments pertaining to each week's reading. Reading and discussing
great works is tremendously helpful to students in the development
of their ability to write well.
Please note in the lists below that some of the
selections are marked with an asterisk. We read selections from
those texts rather than the entire work.
Eighty percent
[80%] of the weekly readings can be found in Britannica's Great
Books of the Western World 60 volume set. You can purchase this
set and/or the individual works and our Great Books Study Guides
from the Academy
Bookstore here.
YEAR 1 -
2008/09 Great Books Program
First Year - The Ancient Greeks |
| Week |
First
Semester |
|
NOTA
BENE: |
Reading before
the second class:
Theogony
- Hesiod; Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus |
| 1 |
Orientation: (Sept.
3) Intro to the Great Books & Socratic
Discussion. The
Great Conversation, Adler |
| 2 |
Theogony
- Hesiod
Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus (Sept.
10) |
| 3 |
The
Iliad
- Homer (Sept.
17) |
| 4 |
The
Iliad
- Homer (Sept.
24) |
| 5 |
The
Odyssey
- Homer (Oct. 1) |
| 6 |
The
Odyssey
- Homer (Oct. 8) |
| 7 |
Agamemnon,
Libation Bearers
- Aeschylus Eumenides -
Aeschylus (Oct. 15] |
| 8 |
Trojan
Women, Alcestis
- Euripedes
(Oct.
22)
|
| 9 |
Aesop's
Fables - Aesop
(Oct. 29) |
| 10 |
Oedipus
Rex, Oedipus at Colonus - Sophocles
(Nov.
5) |
| 11 |
Antigone
- Sophocles,
Hippolytus - Euripides
(Nov. 12) |
| 12 |
Thanksgiving
Break* -
(Nov. 19) |
| 13 |
Histories*
-
Herodotus
- (Nov. 26) |
| 14 |
Histories*
- Herodotus
(Dec.
3) |
| 15 |
Histories*
- Herodotus
(Dec. 10) |
| 16 |
Oral
Exams (December
10-23) |
|
|
Week |
Second
Semester |
| 17 |
Medea,
Bacchae
- Euripedes (Jan. 21) |
| 18 |
Peloponnesian
War*
- Thucydides (Jan. 28) |
| 19 |
Peloponnesian
War *
Thucydides
(Feb 4) |
| 20 |
Fragments*
-
Presocratic Philosophers (Feb. 11) |
| 21 |
Ion,
Meno - Plato
(Feb.
18) |
| 22 |
Gorgias -
Plato (Feb. 25) |
| 23 |
Republic - Plato (Mar. 4) |
| 24 |
Symposium - Plato (March 11) |
| 25 |
Apology,
Euthyphro - Plato (Mar. 18) |
| 26 |
Crito,
Phaedo - Plato (Mar. 25) |
| 27 |
Poetics,
On the Heavens*,
On the Soul* - Aristotle (April 3) |
| 28 |
Spring
Break - April 5-19
|
| 29 |
Ethics*,
Metaphysics* - Aristotle {April 22) |
| 30 |
Aristides,
Alexander
- Plutarch (Apr. 29) |
| 31 |
The
Oath, On Ancient Medicine, On Airs, Waters, Places
- Hippocrates (May 6) |
| 32 |
Elements,
Euclid
(May
13) |
| 33 |
Oral
Exams
(May 18-29) |
*Selections Only |
YEAR 2 -
2008/09 Great Books Program
Second
Year - Roman Readings |
| Week |
First
Semester |
| 1 |
Aeneid
-
Virgil
(Sept.
4) |
| 2 |
Aeneid
-
Virgil
(Sept. 11) |
| 3 |
Livy*
(Sept. 18) |
| 4 |
Livy*
(Sept. 25) |
| 5 |
Plutarch:
Romulus,
Numa Pomulus, Coriolanus, Caesar
(Oct. 2) |
| 6 |
Conquest
of Gaul -
Caesar
(Oct. 9) |
| 7 |
Plutarch:
Cato the Younger, Antony, Brutus, Cicero
(Oct. 16) |
| 8 |
On
Friendship
- Cicero
(Oct. 23) |
| 9 |
On
Duties
- Cicero
(Oct. 30) |
| 10 |
Annals*
- Tacitus (Nov. 6) |
| 11 |
On
the Nature of Things* - Lucretius
(Nov.
13) |
| 12 |
Discourses*
-
Epictitus;
Meditations* - Marcus
Aurelius
(Nov. 20) |
| 13 |
Thanksgiving
Break
{Nov. 27) |
| 14 |
Almagest
-
Ptolemy
(Dec. 4) |
| 15 |
On
the Natural Faculties
- Galen
(Dec.
11) |
| 16 |
Enneads*
-
Plotinus (Dec. 18) |
| 17 |
Oral exams - Dec.
10-23 |
*Selections Only |
| Week |
Second Semester |
| 18 |
Old
Testament - Genesis
(Jan. 22) |
| 19 |
New
Testament*
(Jan. 29) |
| 20 |
Apocalypse (Book of
Revelation)- John (Feb. 5) |
| 21 |
Confessions
- Augustine (Feb. 12) |
| 22 |
Confessions
- Augustine (Feb. 19) |
| 23 |
Consolation
of Philosophy
- Boethius
(Feb. 26) |
| 24 |
Qu'ran*;
Muhammed (Mar.
5) |
| 25 |
Two
Lives of Charlemagne; Le Cid
- Corneille (Mar.
12) |
| 26 |
History
of the English People
- Bede
[Mar. 19) |
| 27 |
Sir
Galahad
- Tennyson
Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight
(Mar. 26)
|
| 28 |
Memoirs
of the Crusades; Crusade of St. Louis -
Al-Makrisi
(Apr.
2)
|
| 29 |
Spring
Break - (Apr. 5 - 19) |
| 30 |
Song of Roland (Apr. 23)
|
| 31 |
The
Divine Comedy
- Dante
(April 30) |
| 32 |
The
Divine Comedy - Dante
(May 7) |
| 33 |
The
Divine Comedy
- Dante (May 14) |
| 34 |
Oral
Exams (May 18-29) |
|
YEAR 3 -
2008/09 Great Books Program
Third
Year - Medieval Readings |
| Week |
First Semester |
| 1 |
Canterbury
Tales
(Sept. 5) - Chaucer |
| 2 |
Canterbury
Tales
(Sept. 12) - Chaucer |
| 3 |
Aquinas*
(Sept. 19) |
| 4 |
Aquinas*
(Sept. 26) |
| 5 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 3) |
| 6 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 10) |
| 7 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 17) |
| 8 |
The
Prince
- Machiavelli
(Oct. 24) |
| 9 |
Utopia
- Sir Thomas More
(Oct. 31) |
| 10 |
Praise
of Folly
- Erasmus
(Nov. 7) |
| 11 |
On
the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres*
- Copernicus
(Nov. 14) |
| 12 |
Institutes
of the Christian Relgion* -
Calvin
(Nov. 21) |
| 13 |
Essays*
-
Montaigne
(Dec. 5) |
| 14 |
Don Quixote* - Cervantes (Dec. 4) |
| 15 |
Don
Quixote*
- Cervantes (Dec. 12) |
| 16 |
Oral
Exams - (Dec. 10 - 23) |
*Selections Only |
| Week |
Second Semester |
| 17 |
Comedy
of Errors, Shakespeare
(Jan. 23) |
| 18 |
A Midsummer's Night's Dream;
Shakespeare
(Jan. 30) |
| 19 |
The
Taming of the Shrew
- William Shakespeare (Feb. 6) |
| 20 |
Coriolanus
-
Shakespeare (Feb. 13) |
| 21 |
Julius
Caesar
- Shakespeare
(Feb. 20) |
| 22 |
Dialogues Concerning
Two New Sciences* - Galileo (Feb.
27) |
| 23 |
The
Merchant of Venice
- Shakespeare
(Mar. 6) |
| 24 |
Henry
V
- Shakespeare
(Mar. 13) |
| 25 |
The
New Atlantis and Novum Organum*
-
Bacon
(Mar. 20) |
| 26 |
Leviathan*
-
Hobbes
(Mar. 27) |
| 27 |
Rules
for the Direction of the Mind*, Discourse on Method*,
Meditations-
Descartes - (Apr. 3) |
| 28 |
Spring
Break (Apr.
5-19) |
| 29 |
Paradise
Lost
- Milton
(Apr. 24) |
| 30 |
Paradise
Lost
-
Milton
(May 1) |
| 31 |
Pensees*
-
Pascal
(May 8) |
| 32 |
Romeo
& Juliet
- Wm. Shakespeare (May 15) |
| 33 |
Oral
Exams
- (May 18-29) |
|
YEAR 4 -
2008/09 Great Books Program
Fourth
Year - Modern Readings |
| Week |
First Semester |
| 1 |
Hamlet
- Wm. Shakespeare (Sept. 2) |
| 2 |
Othello -
William Shakespeare (Sept. 9) |
| 3 |
MacBeth -
William Shakespeare (Sept. 16) |
| 4 |
King
Lear -
William Shakespeare (Sept. 23) |
| 5 |
The
Tempest
-
William Shakespeare (Sep. 30) |
| 6 |
Tartuffe
-
Moliere;
Phaedra,
Racine
(Oct. 7) |
| 7 |
Gulliver's
Travels
- Jonathan
Swift (Oct. 14) |
| 8 |
Essay
Concerning Human Knowledge*, Second Essay on Civil
Government*, Letter on Toleration*
-John Locke
(Oct. 21) |
| 9 |
Essay
Concerning Human Knowledge*, Second Essay on Civil
Government*, Letter on Toleration*
- John Locke
(Oct. 28) |
| 10 |
An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding*, Treatise
of Human Nature*, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion*
-
David
Hume (Nov. 4) |
| 11 |
The
Social Contract*, On the Origin of Inequality*
- Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (Nov. 11) |
| 12 |
The
Federalist Papers*; - Q 105, Art. 1
- Aquinas (Nov. 18) |
| 13 |
U.S.
Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation,
& Constitution (Nov.
25) |
| 14 |
Democracy
in America*,
-
De Tocqueville;
Representative
Government*,
J.S, Mill (Dec.
2) |
| 15 |
Emma
- Jane
Austen (Dec. 19) |
| 16 |
Oral
Exams (Dec. 10 - 23) |
| |
|
*Selections Only |
| Week |
Second Semester |
| 17 |
Critique
of Pure Reason*, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics
of Morals*
-
Immanuel
Kant (Jan. 20) |
| 18 |
Faust
- Goethe,
(Jan. 27) |
| 19 |
Philosophy
of Right*, The Philosophy of History*
- Georg Hegel
(Feb. 3) |
| 20 |
War
and Peace*
- Tolstoy
(Feb. 10) |
| 21 |
War
and Peace
-
Tolstoy
(Feb. 17) |
| 22 |
The
Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor
Mikailovich Dostoevsky (Feb. 24) |
| 23 |
The
Brothers Karamazov
-
Fyodor Mikailovich
Dostoevsky (Mar. 3) |
| 24 |
Wealth of Nations* - Adam Smith;
Communist
Manifesto
- Karl Marx
(Mar. 10) |
| 25 |
1st
& 2nd Inaugural Addresses, Gettysburg
Address; Emancipation Proclamation -
Abraham Lincoln (Mar. 17) |
| 26 |
Walden,
Civil Disobedience
-
Henry David
Thoreau (Mar. 24) |
| 27 |
The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Mark Twain
- (Mar. 31) |
| 28 |
Spring
Break
(Apr..
5-19) |
| 29 |
The
Origin of Species* -
Charles Darwin
(April 28) |
| 30 |
Nineteen
Eighty Four -
George Orwell
(April 28) |
| 31 |
Relativity:
The Special and General Theory -
Einstein
(May 5) |
| 32 |
My
Antonia
-
Willa
Cather (May 12) |
| 33 |
Oral
Exams (May 18 - 29) |
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