On Being Civilized: A Few Lines Amid the Breakage

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Is civilization worth defending? Should we aim to conform to its precepts so we can be considered civilized? Should we aim to bring our children up according to its norms so they too can be considered civilized? None of these crucial questions can be answered unless we have a clear understanding of what civilization is or, perhaps as important, what it isn’t.

With On Being Civilized, Tracy Lee Simmons proves to be a reliable guide to a sound and historically informed understanding of civilization. This selection of his writing on multifarious topics over the last thirty years is animated by the transcendental trinity of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

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On Being Civilized: A Few Lines Amid the Breakage

Civilization, being such an all-encompassing thing, is hard to define. Some use history. Others use archaeology. Some study civilization directly. But there is another way to confront the question, which is simply to articulate what a healthy civilization looks like. Tracy Lee Simmons (Memoria College Professor) approaches the question of what civilization is by allowing us to look over the shoulder of a civilized man as he thinks and writes about civilized things.

Simmons begins with the basic meditation on the nature of civilization. He examines several “signposts” that indicate when we are living civilized lives in a more or less civilized society. Through book reviews and other literary essays on biographies, history, language, literature, and culture, Simmons provides insightful and beautiful essays that remind us of an illustration of the good life—and through it, an intimation of the Good itself.

Featuring a foreword from Joseph Pearce and an introduction from Martin Cothran, On Being Civilized from Memoria College Press is a fantastic addition to any library. Also, check out Simmons’ Climbing Parnassus, in which he presents a defense of the formative power of classical language. This makes for a bracing reminder of the genuine aims of a truly classical education.