From The Brooklyn Rail, Katie Rolnick reviews The Art of Freedom: Teaching the Humanities to the Poor by Earl Shorris. Humanities fall from favor: Far fewer Harvard students express interest in field with weak job prospects. Ave atque vale: Upon his retirement from Yale, Donald Kagan considers the future of liberal education in this farewell speech. From LARB, Ian Bogost, Cathy N. Davidson, Al Filreis and Ray Schroeder on MOOCs and the future of the humanities: A roundtable (and part 2). Erik Loomis on Leon Wieseltier on the core reason for the humanities crisis. Honing the mind and nurturing the soul: Steven Schwartz on why the humanities are underrated. Peter Augustine Lawler on defending the humanities: Job one is outing scientism. A humanist apologizes to numbers: Word person Jon Volkmer, despite years of mutual hostility, tries a little detente with those dour digits. Who knows what: For decades the sciences and the humanities have fought for knowledge supremacy — both sides are wrong-headed.
