https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYo4KMhUx9c
Roger Scruton: Why Intellectuals are Mostly Left

I though I spotted the official Five-foot Shelf of Harvard Classics, but I can’t find a confirming picture of the bindings. It might be some other large set of various works.

We did not have an encyclopedia set when I was a child, but my dad’s sister’s family did, and I often browsed through that when visits got long or boring. We bought our own kids one of the “volume a week” sets at the grocery story, which was all we could afford. I didn’t realize at the time how much more reduced in scope it was, and that the entries were far less erudite and complete than the classic publications. That didn’t make the move with us (we left it with some home-schooling friends), but I had the good fortune to find, at a library sale, a full set of the 1911 Britannica, 11th edition, all 28 volumes and index for $5.

I used to browse in it for fun, to see if what I “knew” about some important event was different from what had been “known” closer to the time, but the print is so small that I can’t read it comfortably now.
However, I like to look at it sitting on the shelves, politely waiting to be consulted.

At least it won’t change the text on me from one reading to the next, as Wikipedia is wont to do (and not always for the better).

Another reference source I used as a primary school student in the 1960’s was to send a letter to the Embassy of a selected country, asking the Embassy to please send me information about their country. They would respond with a load of material, covering a wide range of areas of interest. I think I got hooked on this because of the missionaries from “foreign lands” (which in my young ears I heard as “farm lands”) which often visited our church.

We had the World Book in Red/Navy with gold lettering on the spine. Was there some difference in the material inside based on the colors of the binding?

My maternal grandfather had the Harvard Classics (or Dr. Eliot’s Five-Foot Reading Shelf). He had to drop out of school at a young age to support his mother and siblings when his father suddenly died. He educated himself using the Classics. I inherited the set, but am ashamed to say I’ve never read them.

Tom Watson Jr, longtime CEO of IBM, mentioned in his memoir a friend who had achieve high level at the company despite coming from a rough background. When Watson asked him how he had done it, the man said his self-improvement plan had had 3 major elements:

–read the classics
–listen to classical music
–buy suits at Brooks Brothers

(not sure exactly when this was, might have been earlier than the 1950s)

https://www.amazon.com/Kamala-Harris-Forward-Poster-inches/dp/B0DDKR8C21?th=1

But what does Voorwarts, Vorwärts, Vpered, Forwards have in common politically???

here, let chatgpt tell you. not like im a source of anything to anyone

The terms Voorwaarts (Dutch), Vorwärts (German), Vpered (Russian), and Forwards (English) share significant political commonalities rooted in their historical use by progressive, socialist, or revolutionary movements. Here’s what they have in common:

Symbols of Progress:
All these terms mean “forward” in their respective languages, signifying progress, change, and a future-oriented vision. They embody the idea of moving toward a better, more equitable society, a theme central to many left-wing political ideologies.

Association with Socialist Movements:

Vorwärts was the name of a prominent German socialist newspaper associated with the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Vpered was a revolutionary publication linked to early Bolshevik factions in Russia.
Voorwaarts has been used by Dutch labor and socialist organizations.
Forwards (or Forward) has been used in English-speaking socialist and progressive contexts, such as the U.S. Jewish socialist newspaper The Forward.
Rallying Cries for Revolution and Reform:
These terms have historically served as rallying cries, uniting workers, intellectuals, and activists under the banners of social justice, equality, and political transformation.

Optimism and Momentum:
Politically, these words express a belief in human progress, often tied to collective action, mobilization, and the fight against oppression and exploitation.

Their shared political significance lies in their role as linguistic symbols of leftist aspirations and movements across different nations and languages.

Yes. We discussed how aspirational postwar American culture was in the thread on Terry Teachout’s death in January 2022:

https://www.thenewneo.com/2022/01/14/rip-terry-teachout/#comments

I miss that America. Maybe it will come back.

It’s virtue signaling. Knowing how the word things in accordance with the current fad is like the secret handshake that shows you’re part of the “in” crowd.

“His efforts built on more than two decades of work by his father Robert McCormick Jr., with the aid of Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held by the family.”

I was in 8th grade too, in music class. And now it is November 22 as I write this …

To bring it back on topic, my mother was a teacher and she moonlighted selling World Book encyclopedias.