Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977)
Author of Britannica Great Books of the Western World (54 Volumes)
About the Author
Robert Hutchins wrote widely about education and is best known for his support of liberal education, which he believed "prepares the young for anything that may happen; it has value under any circumstances. . . . It gets them ready for a lifetime of learning. It connects man with man. It introduces show more all men to the dialogue about the common good of their own country and of the world community. It frees their mind of prejudice. It lays the basis of practical wisdom." He believed that the increasing complexities of civilization did not justify any modification in this approach. "The more technological the society," he says in The Learning Society (1968), "the less ad hoc education can be. The reason is that the more technological the society is, the more rapidly it will change and the less valuable ad hoc education will become. It now seems safe to say that the best practical education is the best theoretical one." After serving as dean of Yale Law School in 1929, Hutchins became (at age 29) president and in 1949 chancellor of the University of Chicago, remaining there until 1951. During this period, he and Mortimer Adler introduced the Great Books program into the Chicago curriculum. They believed that the best education is achieved through reading and understanding the great minds of the past. Later he became associate director of the Ford Foundation and president of the Fund for the Republic. In the latter post, Hutchins faced the oppressive climate for free expression brought about by McCarthyism, but he saw to it that the fund's projects included studies of the federal loyalty-security program, of political blacklisting in the entertainment industries, and of the nature of communism in the United States. He retired as the chief executive officer of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California, a "community of scholars" under the aegis of the Ford Foundation. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
Series
Works by Robert Maynard Hutchins
The Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 43: American State Papers, The Federalist, and J. S. Mill (1776) — Editor — 391 copies
The Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 3: The Great Ideas, A Syntopicon II: Man - World (1952) 340 copies
Great Books of the Western World 33 copies
Great Books of The Western World 7 copies
Two faces of federalism; an outline of an argument about pluralism, unity, and law: followed by a discussion (1961) 6 copies
Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Volume 1 & 2; Great Books Of The Western World #40-#41 5 copies
Zuckerkandl! 4 copies
The Provincial Letters; Pensees; Scientific Treatises - Great Books Of The Western World, Volume 33 3 copies
Britannica Great Books v.17 3 copies
Great Books of the Western World [64-volume set] — Editor — 3 copies
Britannica Great Books v.42 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.50 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.41 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.43 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.44 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.40 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.45 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.46 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.47 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.48 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.4 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.49 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.5 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.6 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.51 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.52 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.53 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.54 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.38 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.7 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.8 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.9 2 copies
Herodotus - thurydides (vol.6) 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.39 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.34 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.37 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.19 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.36 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.1 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.10 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.11 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.12 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.13 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.14 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.15 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.16 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.18 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.2 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.20 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.29 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.3 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.35 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.21 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.33 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.31 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.28 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.27 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.32 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.26 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.25 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.24 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.23 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.22 2 copies
Britannica Great Books v.30 2 copies
The Great Ideas I. Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., in collaboration with the University of Chicago 1 copy
The democratic dilemma 1 copy
The Printed Word: A Ten-Year Bibliography of the Fund for the Republic and the Center for the Study of Democratic… (1963) 1 copy
GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD--54 Volumes 27 volumes 1961-1987 GREAT IDEAS TODAY (Yearbooks) 10 volumes GATEWAY TO… (1952) 1 copy
William James 1 copy
Picking Apples and Pumpkins 1 copy
Hippocrates - Galen (vol.10) 1 copy
Tacitus (vol.15) 1 copy
Chaucer (vol. 22) 1 copy
Sheakspeare I (vol. 26) 1 copy
Kant (vol. 42) 1 copy
Francis Bacon (vol. 30) 1 copy
Associated Works
The Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 5: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes (1952) — Editor — 474 copies
Great Books of the Western World Vol 23 Machiavelli, Hobbes (1532) — Editor, some editions — 327 copies
The Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 2: The Great Ideas, A Syntopicon I: Angel - Love (1952) — Editor, some editions — 301 copies
A Free and Responsible Press: A General Report on Mass Communication: Newspapers, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines,… (1947) — Foreword — 20 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hutchins, Robert Maynard
- Birthdate
- 1899-01-17
- Date of death
- 1977-05-17
- Burial location
- Santa Barbara Cemetary, Summit M 501, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Santa Barbara, California, USA - Education
- Oberlin College
Yale University (BA|1921)
Yale Law School (LL.B | 1925) - Occupations
- President (University of Chicago)
Associate Director (Ford Foundation)
Founder (Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions)
professor
administrator - Relationships
- Hutchins, Maude (wife)
- Organizations
- United States Army
Yale Law School
University of Chicago
Ford Foundation - Awards and honors
- Croce al Merito di Guerra
Members
Reviews
Philosophical Essays (Gateway to the Great Books, #10) by Robert Maynard Hutchins
There are some good essays in this volume, mixed in with some painfully dull, pointless reads that I'd recommend skimming. If you want a great way to be introduced to a lot of different classic authors, this is a good book to pick up.
12/22/20 I own the complete set (vol 1-54) and keep them at home on the top west shelf of my office; this includes The Great Conversation (which is volume 1) and The Great Ideas (volumes 2-3, the Synopticon); I also have at home Gateway to the Great Books volumes 2-5 (missing 1 and 6-10, see following paragraph). I have only the years 1979, 1981, and 1982 of The Great Ideas Today published each year 1961-1998. [I also have volumes 1-3 of Great Books of the Western World in the BCSA office, although I have them at home at the moment to read on my next sabbatical (Lord willing) as they seem a little nicer set (for reading).]
(Wikipedia) Gateway to the Great Books is a 10-volume series of books originally published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. in 1963 and edited by Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins. The set was designed as an introduction to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1952. The set included selections – short stories, plays, essays, letters, and extracts from longer works – by more than one hundred authors. The selections were generally shorter and in some ways simpler than the full-length books included in the Great Books.… (more)
(Wikipedia) Gateway to the Great Books is a 10-volume series of books originally published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. in 1963 and edited by Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins. The set was designed as an introduction to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1952. The set included selections – short stories, plays, essays, letters, and extracts from longer works – by more than one hundred authors. The selections were generally shorter and in some ways simpler than the full-length books included in the Great Books.… (more)
An anthology, and really a series of journalistic reports. Not greatly insightful. Biological Sciences and Medicine, The Year's Developments In. Leonard Engel & Kenneth Brodney 180-
225.
Literature, The Year's Developments In. Saul Bellow 134-179.
Philosophy, Religion, and Theology, The Year's Developments In. John Herman Randall, Jr. 226-277.
Social Sciences, Law, and History, The Year's Developments In. Reuel Denney 358-392.
An Essay On Time: The Tempo of History (An Analysis). Milton Mayer.83-131.
Death In Venice. Thomas Mann.395-441.
Essay On Population. Robert Malthus.463-554.
Existentialism. Jean-Paul Sartre.443-462.
Has Man's Conquest of Space Increased Or Diminished His Stature? A Symposium (Herbert J. Muller,
Aldous Huxley, Hannah Arendt, Paul Tillich, Harrison Brown).1-82.
Physical Sciences, Technology, and Astronomy, The Year's Developments In.Edward U. Condon 278-357.
Space In Great Books of the Western World. Editors.74-82.… (more)
225.
Literature, The Year's Developments In. Saul Bellow 134-179.
Philosophy, Religion, and Theology, The Year's Developments In. John Herman Randall, Jr. 226-277.
Social Sciences, Law, and History, The Year's Developments In. Reuel Denney 358-392.
An Essay On Time: The Tempo of History (An Analysis). Milton Mayer.83-131.
Death In Venice. Thomas Mann.395-441.
Essay On Population. Robert Malthus.463-554.
Existentialism. Jean-Paul Sartre.443-462.
Has Man's Conquest of Space Increased Or Diminished His Stature? A Symposium (Herbert J. Muller,
Aldous Huxley, Hannah Arendt, Paul Tillich, Harrison Brown).1-82.
Physical Sciences, Technology, and Astronomy, The Year's Developments In.Edward U. Condon 278-357.
Space In Great Books of the Western World. Editors.74-82.… (more)
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