Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945)

This is one of my absolute favorites. Nock is the self-educated man who thinks with logic, seeks importance, and acts, within his environment, on that which is important; and he is an elitist. Nock learned Greek and Latin on his own with limited direction from his father. He describes the law of diminishing returns in education: "Socrates chatting with a single protagonist meant one thing, and well did he know it. Socrates lecturing to a class of fifty would mean something woefully different, so he organised no classes and did no lecturing. Jersualem was a university town, and in a university every day is field-day for the law of diminishing returns. Jesus stayed away from Jerusalem, and talked with fishermen here and there, who seem to have pretty well got what he was driving at; some better than others, apparently, but on the whole pretty well. And so we have it that unorganised Christianity was one thing, while organised Christianity has consistently been another."

Regarding the popular classical works (Caesar, Homer, Virgil, Cicero), Nock felt this was the "dullest, dreariest, most unrewarding task I ever set my hand to." Instead the "scraps" used in his learning Greek and Latin taught him affairs of ordinary life and experience which made him see "men and women of antiquity ... not as heroes, but as people exaclty like us, each with twenty-four hours a day to get through somehow or other and for the most part getting throguh them quite as we do," while the "great orator was a good deal of a stuffed shirt."

"Nine-tenths of the value of classical studies lies in their power to establish a clear common-sense, matter-of-fact view of human nature and its activities over a continuous stretch of some twenty centuries." "Too often a routing of elementary Greek and Latin was forced upon ineducable children." "I have seen many a graduate student who had gone to Germany to study under some great classicist, like a colour-blind botanist going to a flower-show with a bad cold in his head; he came back a a doctor of philosophy, knowing a great deal about his subject, I dare say, but not knowing how to appreciate or enjoy it."

In discussing the industrial revolution and ensuing prosperity, he brings out the this-cannot-last fears that seemed to underly the thoughts of many. Economism was the only philosophy; the "whole of human life in terms of the production, acquisition and distribution of wealth." "I sometimes thought of the rich lumbermen whom I had known so well, and on the whole had rather liked. Now I ws looking at the great avatars of their practical philosophy, the Carnegies, Rockefellers, Fricks, Hills, Huntingtons, of the period. I asked myself whether any amount of wealth would be worth having if - as one most efficiently must - if one had to become just like these men in order to get it. To me, at least, it would not; I should be a superfluous man in the scuffle for riches."

Nock continues onward with constantly interesting insight, including 3 simple laws that explain so many human trends. They're beautiful. Want to know? Read the book.… (mais)

I'm sure it is given its simple title on the basis of Jefferson's own assertion that even the title of "Mr." President" was more than was necessary. Nock makes it clear that he is neither historian nor biographer here, but merely a student of Jefferson's life. Nock portrays Jefferson as that ideal combination of mathematician and poet necessary to make a truly practical man. Nock relates the Anglican political structure and debate of William and Mary as being the training ground that gave Jefferson such a grounding in political philosophy. (Jefferson's own letters from "Devilsburg" validate this.) After his brief practice of law, Jefferson scorned the profession, remarking that at the end of his life "the lawyer has only to recollect how many, by his dexterity, have been cheated out of their right and reduced to beggary." He separated personal differences from political differences and found anyone who didn't to be vulgar. He believed firmly in the "industrious life," quoting Nock: "he himself has never been idle for an aggregate of twelve hours in his whole life, and in the large sense, he had always been happy." Regarding art, Nock observes that most people tend to work first for wealth after which they can purchase the luxury of art. Jefferson's emphasis on education, not followed during his early years in Virginia, were adopted late in life with a new system across the state and the founding of the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson himself finally became insolvent during his last years and was relieved by the help of so many private individuals (even whole cities). Out of principle, he had turned down help form the Virginia legislature. On his deathbed, he continually asked if it was yet the 4th (the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration) and died on that day, 5 hours after John Adams. Nock also covers Jefferson's relationship with the other founding fathers, his relationship with the French, and his policies as president - all with that sharp insight he brings to any topic.… (mais)