A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books

"A Great Idea at the Time is Alex Beam's witty, informative history of the creation and cultural reign of the oft-quoted, least-read books of our time, or any other. The Great Books started as an educational movement, evolved into a successful marketing idea, and live on as an intriguing bibelot in the curiosity shop of intellectual history. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates, Galen, and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? How and why did the Great Books fall out of fashion?" "Populated with amusing and memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time is an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. It will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius's De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not?"--BOOK JACKET.Beam, Alex is the author of 'A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books' with ISBN 9781586484873 and ISBN 1586484877.