Great Books: Everyone's Inheritance

Why it’s on the list: Michael Gose’s case for reading the Great Books, drawn from the Great Books program he started at Pepperdine University after a visit from Mortimer Adler and has taught for decades — including what those classes have actually looked like.

Where I heard about it

• @athenaeumbc — one of ~35 old books in a stack photographed by Athenaeum Book Club (October 2026) under the line “One of the hidden benefits of reading old books is that they rescue you from the arrogance of the present.” The full stack is listed on One of the hidden benefits… (tweet).

Connections

• Great Books — the tradition the book argues for.
• How To Read a Book — Mortimer Adler, whose visit prompted Gose’s Pepperdine program.
• One of the hidden benefits… (tweet) — the stack it came from.