Most Popular Books by Michael S. Roth

Contentious debates over the benefits—or drawbacks—of a liberal education are as old as America itself. From Benjamin Franklin to the Internet pundits, critics of higher education have attacked its irrelevance and elitism—often calling for more vocational instruction. Thomas Jefferson, by contrast, believed that nurturing a student’s capacity for lifelong learning was useful for science and commerce while also being essential for democracy. In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America’s long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education. Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. DuBois’s humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington’s educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams’s emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey’s calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks. Roth explores these arguments (and more), considers the state of higher education today, and concludes with a stirring plea for the kind of education that has, since the founding of the nation, cultivated individual freedom, promulgated civic virtue, and instilled hope for the future.

From the president of Wesleyan University, an illuminating history of the student, spanning from antiquity to Zoom "[Roth] has a clear vision for what it ought to mean to be a student: Learn what you love to do, get better at it, and then share it with others."--David Perry, Washington Post In this sweeping book, Michael S. Roth narrates a vivid and dynamic history of students, exploring some of the principal models for learning that have developed in very different contexts, from the sixth century BCE to the present. Beginning with the followers of Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus and moving to medieval apprentices, students at Enlightenment centers of learning, and learners enrolled in twenty-first-century universities, he explores how students have been followers, interlocutors, disciples, rebels, and children becoming adults. There are many ways to be a student, Roth argues, but at their core is developing the capacity to think for oneself by learning from others, and thereby finding freedom. In an age of machine learning, this book celebrates the student who develops more than mastery, cultivating curiosity, judgment, creativity, and an ability to keep learning beyond formal schooling. Roth shows how the student throughout history has been someone who interacts dynamically with the world, absorbing its lessons and creatively responding to them.

From the president of Wesleyan University, a compassionate and provocative manifesto on the crises confronting higher education In this bracing book, Michael S. Roth stakes out a pragmatist path through the thicket of issues facing colleges today to carry out the mission of higher education. With great empathy, candor, subtlety, and insight, Roth offers a sane approach to the noisy debates surrounding affirmative action, political correctness, and free speech, urging us to envision college as a space in which students are empowered to engage with criticism and with a variety of ideas. Countering the increasing cynical dismissal—from both liberals and conservatives—of the traditional core values of higher education, this book champions the merits of different diversities, including intellectual diversity, with a timely call for universities to embrace boldness, rigor, and practical idealism.

Knowing and History charts the development of Hegelian philosophy of history in France from the 1930s through the postwar period, and critically assesses its significance for an understanding of our cultural present and of the possibilities for making meaning out of change over time. Michael Roth provides detailed analyses of the works of three of the most important Hegelian thinkers: Jean Hyppolite, Alexandre Kojève, and Eric Weil. These philosophers turned to history as the source of truths and criteria of judgment: they forged connections between history and knowing as a means of confronting key modem philosophical problems, and of engaging their contemporary political concerns. By the 1950s, however, they had withdrawn from the historical in search of a more secure, hopeful subject for reflection. According to Roth, the French Hegelians'' work illuminates the power and limitations of the philosophical approach to history. Further, he finds in the development of their philosophies one of the crucial transformations in modem intellectual history: the shift from a concern with questions of significance to a concern with questions of use or function. He seeks to explicate the contemporary retreat from questions of significance by situating our cultural moment in relation to its intellectual antecedents. In an Afterword devoted to French post-structuralism, the author discusses Hegel''s replacement by Nietzsche as the locus of philosophical authority in France in the 1960s, and examines how this shift informs the work of Michel Foucault. Roth argues that the use of Nietzsche against a dialectical philosophy of history contributes to a serious disjunction between philosophical reflection and political judgment. Relevant to a wide variety of disciplines, Knowing and History will appeal to those specializing in intellectual history and political theory, as well as philosophers of history, critical theorists, and students of modem French thought and culture.

"Memory, trauma, and history is comprosed of essays that fall into five overlapping subject areas: history and memory; psychoanalysis and trauma; postmodernism, scholarship, and cultural politics; photography and representation; and liberal education." -- Introduction.

In a rich, thought-provoking work, Roth explores central questions in the philosophy of history. The Ironist''s Cage asks why we are interested in having a past, why we try to recollect it, and what desires we hope to satisfy through this recollection.

In this book Michael S. Roth argues that psycho-analysis, as Freud conceived it, is first and foremost a theory of history which aims at freedom through a self-consciousness of the presentness of the past.

Ruins have fascinated and intrigued viewers for centuries. These include not only famous sites like Angkor Wat and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, but the remnants of natural disasters like the Lisbon earthquake. This book--the catalog for an exhibition held at the Getty Center--explores the allure of ruins and examines the roles that they play in modern cultural life. An incisive introduction laying out the general issues is followed by an essay discussing the nature of the fragment, a discussion of the Research Institute''s vast holdings of item relating to ruins, a unique section uses juxtaposed color images, and quotations drawn from literary works to point out the longevity and prominence of the ruin as a metaphor.

In this book, Dr. Roth creates an argument for why writing should be added to the other spiritual disciplines like prayer, giving, or meditation. He gives lots of ideas on how writing can be incorporated into the church.

How often have I felt the inertia to settle for the busy life, the distracted life... Often wondering if I can ever get to a point that my life is going in the direction I had hoped. Struggles to establish habits that deepen my spiritual faith. struggles to pull away from common temptations, and struggles to see meaning in what I am doing with life. In the past year something has changed in me. I considered myself to be a spiritual POW who was trapped and tortured. Now I am part of the spiritual SEAL team and want to break out as many of my brothers and sisters as I can. In the past year I have read over 15 books and filled out 8 journals. If you knew me before, you would know that for years I struggled with these habits. I will share my path here in hopes you may be inspired to develop your own personalized path to positive Spiritual Momentum.