Author Archives: Tommy Collison

Assorted Links, 6/14/21

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Rebecca Futo Kennedy has an open letter to the Society for Classical Studies, which helped me think about “classics programs that prepares students for graduate work & academia” as opposed to “classics programs that feed an interest in the ancient … Continue reading →

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Assorted Links, 6/8/21

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Review of “The Book Smugglers.” The war on the Classics: a counterpunch, literally, to the recent Princeton news. “I suspect that Classics is a subject that over more than a millennium, or maybe over two, has actually thrived on the … Continue reading →

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Princeton Classics in The Atlantic

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Tommy Collison

I recently added “amateur Classicist” to my Twitter bio, in the sense that I take a lot of interest in the classics and the Great Books, but have zero formal training. One of the big differentiators between me and an … Continue reading →

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Assorted Links, 6/4/21

Posted on June 4, 2021 by Tommy Collison

High schooler’s essay on intellectual friendship. “…America’s Founding Fathers were, in a sense, a group of intellectual friends who acted on their shared intellectual ideals.” The best books on the industrial revolution. Interesting tidbit for yours truly in this FT … Continue reading →

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Assorted Links 6/1/21

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Princeton released a statement about their new language requirements in the classics department (update to my original post). How I Taught The Iliad to Chinese Teenagers. Profiles of Mary Beard continue to be delightful. The New York Times Magazine profiled the “Cambridge classics professor, … Continue reading →

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Early Impressions of The Prince, Machiavelli

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Tommy Collison

The best parts of reading the Great Books is seeing the delta between what you think a book is about versus what the actual text says. I say “what the actual text says” because there really is no substitute to … Continue reading →

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Princeton drops Greek/Latin language requirement for Classics majors

Posted on May 30, 2021 by Tommy Collison

A quick weekend edition of Literary Forge: in thinking about the ways that my Great Books Project differs from what you’d get at a traditional university. Learning ancient languages (specifically Greek & Latin, but probably also French) seems to be the … Continue reading →

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A Quick Note About Talking About The Classics

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Reading classic books is enjoyable in and of itself, but something that I’ve found surprisingly enjoyable is to take part in the conversations around these books. Much like the actual reading of books, “Discussions around the Classics” is a subset … Continue reading →

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Assorted Links, 5/25/21

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Tommy Collison

New (to me): The bookstore at St. John’s College has a category for faculty-written books. Nonfiction you may have missed because #GlobalPandemic. “Muhua Yang ’21 says [Ovid’s] work resonates in an era of global displacement — and COVID.” (I think … Continue reading →

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(Hopefully) Less inchoate thoughts on Dante’s Inferno

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Continued from here. Intellectuals say that Paradiso is for pious theologians, Purgatorio is for brilliant, exacting scholars of Medieval cosmology, but Inferno, Inferno is for filthy casuals. —Books in 150 Words. I finished Inferno over the weekend, and there’s something about … Continue reading →

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