The Great Tradition
This anthology reconstructs a centuries-long conversation about the goals, conditions, and ultimate value of true education. Spanning more than two millennia, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary writers, it includes substantial excerpts from more than sixty seminal writings on education. $20.00

ISI College Outline Series
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s Guides to the Major Disciplines are short, reader-friendly introductions to the most important fields of knowledge in the classical liberal arts. Written by leading conservative scholars for both students and the general public, they are ideal for high school students in home and private schools. Each title offers a historical overview of a particular discipline, explains the central ideas of its subject, and evaluates the works of thinkers whose ideas have shaped our world. “These handy little books,” says Martin Cothran,“are the best thing out there for a useful overview of the classical curriculum.”

Complete Student Guide Set: $99.95 (regular price $114.25)
A Student’s Guide to Music History, 90 pp., $7.95 By R. J. Stove
R. J. Stove's A Student's Guide to Music History is a concise account, written for the intelligent lay reader, of classical music's development from the early Middle Ages onwards. Beginning with a discussion of Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century German nun and composer, and the origins of plainchant, Stove's narrative recounts the rise (and ever-increasing complexity) of harmony during the medieval world, the differences between secular and sacred music, the glories of the contrapuntal style, and the origins of opera. Stove then relates the achievements of the high baroque period, the very different idioms that prevailed during the late eighteenth century, and the emergence of Romanticism, with its emphasis upon the artist-hero. With the late nineteenth century came a growing emphasis on musical patriotism, writes Stove, especially in Spain, Hungary, Russia, Bohemia, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the United States. A final section discusses the trends that have characterized music since 1945.

Stove's guide also singles out eminent composers for special coverage, including Palestrina, Monteverdi, Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms, Debussy, Richard Strauss, Sibelius, and Messiaen. As a brief orientation to the history and contours of classical music, A Student's Guide to Music History is an unparalleled resource.

A Student’s Guide to Classics, 90 pp., $7.95 By Bruce S. Thornton
Bruce Thornton's crisp and informative Student's Guide to Classics provides readers with an overview of each of the major poets, dramatists, philosophers, and historians of ancient Greece and Rome. Including short bios of major figures and a list of suggested readings, Thornton's guide is unparalleled as a brief introduction to the literature of the classical world.

A Student’s Guide to Natural Science, 88 pp., $6.95 By Stephen M. Barr
Physicist Stephen M. Barr's lucid Student's Guide to Natural Science aims to give students an understanding, in broad outline, of the nature, history, and great ideas of natural science from ancient times to the present, with a primary focus on physics. Barr begins with the contributions of the ancient Greeks, in particular the two great ideas that reality can be understood by the systematic use of reason and that phenomena have natural explanations. He goes on to discuss, among other things, the medieval roots of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the role played by religion in fostering the idea of a lawful natural order, and the major breakthroughs of modern physics, including how many newer "revolutionary" theories are in fact related to much older ones. Throughout this thoughtful guide, Barr draws his readers' attention to the larger themes and trends of scientific history, including the increasing unification and "mathematization" of our view of the physical world that has resulted in the laws of nature appearing more and more as forming a single harmonious mathematical edifice.

A Student’s Guide to Philosophy, 75 pp., $6.95 By Ralph M. McInerny
A Student's Guide to Philosophy examines these questions: Who is a philosopher? Can philosophical thought be avoided? What have philosophers written over the ages? And why should we care? In this critical essay, these and other questions are posed and answered by one of America's leading philosophers, Ralph McInerny of the University of Notre Dame. Schools of thought are examined with humor and verve, and the principal works of philosophers and scholars are recommended.

A Student’s Guide to Economics, 65 pp., $7.95 By Paul Heyne
Paul Heyne, one of the nation's best-selling economists, provides an accessible overview of the discipline of economics. Economic knowledge, he contends, is not complete without reference to the totality of human society-a realization essential to a proper understanding of the fundamental principles of economics. The sweep of economic thinking is presented here with reference to the great economists and important schools of thought.

A Student’s Guide to Psychology, 70 pp., $6.95 By Daniel N. Robinson
Psychology is frequently the most popular major on campus, but it can also be the most treacherous. In this guide, Daniel N. Robinson surveys the philosophical and historical roots of modern psychology and sketches the major schools and thinkers of the discipline. He also identifies those false prejudices-such as contempt for metaphysics and the notion that the mind can be reduced to the chemical processes of the brain-that so often perplex and mislead students of psychology. He ends by calling for psychology to investigate more intensively the problems of moral and civic development. Readers will find Robinson's book to be an indispensable orientation to this culturally influential field.

A Student’s Guide to Religious Studies, 90 pp., $7.95 By Darryl Hart
The study of religion in American higher education is fraught with difficulties that raise important questions about the nature of faith and the purpose of advanced learning. Although religion has been foundational to some of the United States' most prestigious universities, religious studies is a relatively recent addition to the liberal arts curriculum. As a result, students often take courses in religion with expectations that exceed what professors can actually deliver. D. G. Hart explores the conundrums of the ambiguous position of religious studies in the academy and offers advice about the best way to approach and benefit from the teaching and study of religion in contexts often hostile to faith.

A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy, 58 pp., $7.95 By Harvey C. Mansfield
Behind the daily headlines on presidential races and local elections is the theory of the polity-or what the end of our politics should be. Harvard's Harvey C. Mansfield, one of America's leading political theorists, explains why our quest for the good life must address the type of government we seek to uphold. He directs our gaze to the thinkers and philosophies and classic works that have proved most influential throughout the ages.

A Student’s Guide to Literature, 74 pp., $6.95 By R. V. Young
A Student's Guide to Literature takes up these questions: In a time of mass culture and pulp fiction, can great literature still be discerned, much less defended? Why is literature so compelling? What should we read? Literary scholar R. V. Young addresses these timely issues in this guide to Western literature and poetry. He demonstrates that literature liberates the mind from cultural and temporal provincialism by expanding our intellectual and emotional horizons. Learn how great fiction and poetry are integral to a liberal education, and visit the classic works of literature again-or for the first time.

A Student’s Guide to American Political Thought, 114 pp., $7.95 By George W. Carey
Who are the most influential thinkers, and which are the most important concepts, events, and documents in the study of the American political tradition? How ought we regard the beliefs and motivations of the founders, the debate over the ratification of the Constitution, the historical circumstances of the Declaration of Independence, the rise of the modern presidency, and the advent of judicial supremacy? These are a few of the fascinating questions canvassed by George W. Carey in A Student's Guide to American Political Thought. Carey's primer instructs students on the fundamental matters of American political theory while telling them where to turn to obtain a better grasp on the ideas that have shaped the American political heritage.

A Student’s Guide to The Study of Law, 80 pp., $7.95 By Gerard V. Bradley
In a society in which courts, and hence lawyers, have achieved extraordinary power, it is not surprising that the discipline of law is contentious and controversial. In A Student's Guide to the Study of Law, Gerard V. Bradley, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and an expert in the areas of constitutional law and law and religion, introduces readers to the major concepts, cases, and thinkers that have shaped American legal scholarship and history. He also helps readers better understand what, at bottom, is at stake in the different understandings of the nature of law that drive many of our national debates.

A Student’s Guide to U. S. History, 96 pp., $7.95 By Wilfred M. McClay
No nation in modern history has had a more powerful sense of its own distinctiveness than the United States. Yet few Americans understand the immensely varied sources of that sense and the fascinating debates that have always swirled around our attempts to define "America" with greater precision. All too many have come to regard the study of their national history as tedious, just as they fail to embrace the past as something in which they must be consciously grounded. In this introduction to the study of American history, Wilfred M. McClay invites us to experience the perennial freshness and vitality of this great subject as he explores some of the enduring commitments and persistent tensions that have made America what it is.

A Student’s Guide to The Core Curriculum, 112 pp., $7.95 By Mark C. Henrie
College students today have tremendous freedom to choose the courses they will take. With such freedom, however, students face a pressing dilemma: How can they choose well? Which courses convey the core of an authentic liberal arts education, transmitting our civilizational inheritance, and which courses are merely passing fads? From the smorgasbord of electives available, how can students achieve a coherent understanding of their world and their place in history? In a series of penetrating essays, A Student's Guide to the Core Curriculum explains the value of a traditional core of studies in Western civilization and then surveys eight courses available in most American universities which may be taken as electives to acquire such an education. This guide puts "the best" within reach of every student.

A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning, 54 pp., $7.95 By James V. Schall, S.J.
A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning is an inviting conversation with a learned scholar about the content of an authentic liberal arts education. It surveys ideas and books central to the tradition of humanistic education that has fundamentally shaped our country and our civilization. This accessible volume argues for an order and integration of knowledge so that meaning might be restored to the haphazard approach to study currently dominating higher education. Freshly conveying the excitement of learning from the acknowledged masters of intellectual life, this guide is also an excellent blueprint for building one's own library of books that matter.

A Student’s Guide to The Study of History, 50 pp., $6.95 By John Lukacs
To study history is to learn about oneself. And to fail to grasp the importance of the past-to remain ignorant of the deeds and writing of previous generations-is to bind oneself by the passions and prejudices of the age into which one is born. John Lukacs, one of today's most widely published historians, explains what the study of history entails, how it has been approached over the centuries, and why it should be undertaken by today's students. This guide is an invitation to become a master of the historian's craft.