With his most recent book, Anthony Esolen follows up on Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. In this new book, he also draws on the great thinkers of the Western tradition, from Aristotle and Cicero to Dante, Shakespeare, John Adams and C.S. Lewis. This is a book that restates the importance of concepts so often dismissed: truth, beauty, goodness, love, faith and virtue. It is countercultural, in the best sense of the term. In fact, it is an indispensable gift for any parent who wants to help a child enjoy a truly free and full life.
For Esolen, what matters is raising children who can sit with a good book and read, who delight in innocence, who can walk outdoors and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. Esolen wants to free children to be lovers of both humanity and the humanities. He is looking to help parents resist in a healthy way the reigning culture. You name it, he covers it — with wit and understanding — whether it’s Common Core, smartphones, videogames, sex education, popular music, advertising and even politicians and their promises. He also elegantly writes about the wisdom of education, parenting, literature, music, art, philosophy and leisure.
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