Book Review of The Liberating Arts: Why We Need Liberal Arts Education

 Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this title thru NetGalley.

A bit about me: I am a librarian at a state university which requires students to take courses outside their major (“general education”) so they have a wider range of experiences. I have a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees and am a firm believer in lifelong learning.

It would be great if the people who really need to read this book, The Liberating Arts, would do so and actually consider the arguments put forth, but unfortunately the people who most need to be exposed to the messages in these essays have probably already made up their minds and aren’t open to changing them.

The essay by Rachel B. Griffis titled “Forming Better Professionals and Leaders” in Chapter 8 (“Aren’t Liberal Arts Degrees Unmarketable?”) is one that anyone who even thinks about higher education should be required to read. Even as a naive undergraduate back in the late 1980s I knew that college should be about education and being prepared to adapt to changes, not simply about getting a high-paying job.

I enjoyed, and learned from, most of the essays in this book and will be purchasing a copy for my library. Other passages I highlighted were in essays titled: “Amid the Ruins”, “A History of Liberation” (also examining the idea of education being about more than future financial security), “An Expansive Collection”, “Science as a Human Tradition”, “Why Engineers Need the Liberal Arts”, “Why Liberal Arts Matter in Hiring”, and “Liberating the Least of These”.