John Agresto has taught at the University of Toronto, Kenyon College, Duke University, Wabash College, and the New School University. He was a scholar at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina and later served in senior positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe for 11 years. In 2003, Agresto went to Iraq as the Senior Advisor for Higher Education and Scientific Research for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Between 2007 and 2010, he occupied roles including academic dean, provost, and chancellor at the American University of Iraq. He has also been the Lilly Senior Research Fellow at Wabash College, scholar-in-residence at Hampden-Sydney College, and fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Agresto has authored five books and edited three others, including Rediscovering America; Mugged by Reality; The Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy; The Humanist as Citizen; a cookbook; and a political/religious thriller under a pen name. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others. Though recently retired as the probate judge of Santa Fe County, Agresto remains president of John Agresto & Associates, an educational consulting company.

“A timely breath of fresh thinking about the role of the liberal arts in higher education, and one that could not be more accessible or more clearly written. It is meant for all of us.” —Gordon S. Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor Emeritus, Brown University “John Agresto is an educator in the old-fashioned sense, which is also the highest and best sense. He recognizes that education is not, and must not be permitted to degenerate into, indoctrination. Nor is education merely a matter of providing students with information and imparting to them skills—as important as those aspects of education are. True education empowers and encourages students to ask questions, deep questions, fundamental questions of meaning, value, existence. The kind of education Agresto champions teaches students to be critical—and self-critical— thinkers. It immunizes them against ideology, dogmatism, and groupthink.” —Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

John Agresto has taught at the University of Toronto, Kenyon College, Duke University, Wabash College, and the New School University. He was a scholar at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina and later served in senior positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe for 11 years. In 2003, Agresto went to Iraq as the Senior Advisor for Higher Education and Scientific Research for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Between 2007 and 2010, he occupied roles including academic dean, provost, and chancellor at the American University of Iraq. He has also been the Lilly Senior Research Fellow at Wabash College, scholar-in-residence at Hampden-Sydney College, and fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Agresto has authored five books and edited three others, including Rediscovering America; Mugged by Reality; The Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy; The Humanist as Citizen; a cookbook; and a political/religious thriller under a pen name. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others. Though recently retired as the probate judge of Santa Fe County, Agresto remains president of John Agresto & Associates, an educational consulting company.

“A timely breath of fresh thinking about the role of the liberal arts in higher education, and one that could not be more accessible or more clearly written. It is meant for all of us.” —Gordon S. Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor Emeritus, Brown University “John Agresto is an educator in the old-fashioned sense, which is also the highest and best sense. He recognizes that education is not, and must not be permitted to degenerate into, indoctrination. Nor is education merely a matter of providing students with information and imparting to them skills—as important as those aspects of education are. True education empowers and encourages students to ask questions, deep questions, fundamental questions of meaning, value, existence. The kind of education Agresto champions teaches students to be critical—and self-critical— thinkers. It immunizes them against ideology, dogmatism, and groupthink.” —Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University