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An Education for Our Time
General Josiah Bunting -- Rhodes scholar, best-selling novelist, president of three distinguished liberal arts colleges -- draws a portrait of the ideal college.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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95 people want to read
About the author
Josiah Bunting
11 books8 followersJosiah Bunting III is an American educator, author and retired military officer.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 15, 2020
An unusual little book in an interesting tradition of conservative utopianism. Bunting imagines a dying billionaire funding a college in the Wyoming plains informed by values higher and greater than today’s decadent colleges, and lays out the curriculum, student life, mission, and teachers in detail.
Some of the ideas are really intriguing and made me wonder how to implement them: regular outdoor Trekking as part of student life, mandated solitude for all students, a history curriculum built around the idea of emulation. And then there are ideas that seem fully out-of-touch: use of drugs and alcohol is grounds for dismissal….and also, students will not be punished out of respect for their adult autonomy and place in the community. No premarital sex at college, obviously.
It all adds up to a sort of grab-bag of idealistic moralizing visions, which any teacher who’s ever been to a dinner party will be familiar with. At it’s worst, reading this book felt like someone talking your ear off about “You know what kids really NEED to learn today but the school SYSTEM will NEVER teach them…” But that’s an unfair parody, because what redeemed the book for me was the writing style, which is fun, punchy, and literate, like a grandpa who absolutely relishes complaining about modern ills. I enjoyed looking up a number of the poems and texts referenced.
It's especially interesting to read this two decades after it was published, considering that the history of education reform in the 21st century has been one of conservative intellectuals funding new school systems from scratch. The results have been…not very revolutionary. Charter schools have largely recreated the schools they’ve replaced. Online and for-profit colleges are at best a very cursory education, and at worst scams. There are places like NYU Abu Dhabi or Yale-NUS Singapore -- start-up colleges founded with incredible funding -- and they’re flashy, superficial chrome-and-glass institutions. It certainly seems like real-world examples of Bunting’s process produce the opposite effect of his utopian college schemes.
I tend to think that efforts to build schools that will stand athwart history and create a new man will just reflect the society they exist in. But it’s interesting to read about such an effort from a right-wing perspective, and I’m certainly glad I read the book. The frame narrative is cool, too: it's an epistolary work based on letters from the fictional dying industrialist to his lawyer. But in the end it’s not a real plan for a college; it’s fiction.
Some of the ideas are really intriguing and made me wonder how to implement them: regular outdoor Trekking as part of student life, mandated solitude for all students, a history curriculum built around the idea of emulation. And then there are ideas that seem fully out-of-touch: use of drugs and alcohol is grounds for dismissal….and also, students will not be punished out of respect for their adult autonomy and place in the community. No premarital sex at college, obviously.
It all adds up to a sort of grab-bag of idealistic moralizing visions, which any teacher who’s ever been to a dinner party will be familiar with. At it’s worst, reading this book felt like someone talking your ear off about “You know what kids really NEED to learn today but the school SYSTEM will NEVER teach them…” But that’s an unfair parody, because what redeemed the book for me was the writing style, which is fun, punchy, and literate, like a grandpa who absolutely relishes complaining about modern ills. I enjoyed looking up a number of the poems and texts referenced.
It's especially interesting to read this two decades after it was published, considering that the history of education reform in the 21st century has been one of conservative intellectuals funding new school systems from scratch. The results have been…not very revolutionary. Charter schools have largely recreated the schools they’ve replaced. Online and for-profit colleges are at best a very cursory education, and at worst scams. There are places like NYU Abu Dhabi or Yale-NUS Singapore -- start-up colleges founded with incredible funding -- and they’re flashy, superficial chrome-and-glass institutions. It certainly seems like real-world examples of Bunting’s process produce the opposite effect of his utopian college schemes.
I tend to think that efforts to build schools that will stand athwart history and create a new man will just reflect the society they exist in. But it’s interesting to read about such an effort from a right-wing perspective, and I’m certainly glad I read the book. The frame narrative is cool, too: it's an epistolary work based on letters from the fictional dying industrialist to his lawyer. But in the end it’s not a real plan for a college; it’s fiction.
February 3, 2008
Oh, the impossible dream! This would be education at it's finest. Actually, George Wythe College in Cedar City is trying to make this dream come true. Bunting gives the ways, the means and the reasons for classical, liberal education. AND he tells it in a nice story format.
January 14, 2011
Bunting implores the reader to seek (and to provide) education that builds leaders, statesmen, and scholars. His clever use of literary device, remarkable depth of expression, and a compelling story line make this work even more appealing. Brilliant!
September 18, 2025
Sensational, erudite, and, above all, a call to the reader to live with undaunted courage and an inexorable belief in God's goodness and providence. The book is about how to educate people in the American Republic. What type of citizens should education create? How to do this? What particular values, beliefs, principles should we instill? Ultimately, for me, I took his macro views on education and applied it to myself. The book is not a vanity project. The book is humbling yet rewarding, hard yet worth the effort, and, once completed, gives the reader the urge to begin again with the new empowering perspective Bunting provides on what education is and can be in the lives of the people of a Republic, united under God.
February 13, 2026
3.5 stars
June 9, 2008
This book outlines what the author's ideal liberal arts college would look like. Not great reading unless you are interested in the details of organizing higher level education (curriculum planning, cohort structure, living arrangements, etc.) -- if those things are even moderately interesting to you, then you'll probably like this book, as the author's vision is vastly different from the cold gravy, no appeal, gotta-do-it-because-I-have-to offerings we call eduation today. After reading this book, I WISH this was the type of education I was able to receive for myself, and it's the type of education that I hope my own children will receive.
September 7, 2008
Bunting describes a fictional university...what if you had all the money you wanted with no strings attached to create a truly great university for quality education? I liked most of his ideas, although I think it could apply to education even for younger kids and even if you are not trying to create political leaders.
October 7, 2014
This is a cute book, and I love the thought that went into it, but it's too far from reality to merit a close reading for me. It's well-written and emotionally evocative, and I'm glad I've read it because of the happy thoughts it put in my head, but I can't even think of an audience that would find this book engaging or relateable.
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December 31, 2015Written as a series of letters and musings by a man dying of cancer who wants to endow an institution.
Very thought-provoking. I think USAFA actually does a reasonable job *trying* for this kind of this, but fails a lot. One thing I think we get wrong is time for silence/reflection which Bunting talks a lot about.
Very thought-provoking. I think USAFA actually does a reasonable job *trying* for this kind of this, but fails a lot. One thing I think we get wrong is time for silence/reflection which Bunting talks a lot about.
January 4, 2008
One of my favorite books. If you could educate future generations to be citizens, what would you teach?
February 20, 2008
A great read about what a college should do for its students.
April 27, 2008
Great Ideas. Worth the read.
January 20, 2013
Should be required reading for every American educator, and no American politician should be allowed to comment on education without reading this book. Changed everything for me.
July 27, 2011
Boy I'd love to go to this college. Nice classical blueprint. I'm a little partial since we both attended VMI.
June 6, 2013
A fantastic read. What Bunting prescribes is strong medicine, and certainly fitting for our time. I appreciate his very clear exposition on the ends of education
April 19, 2022
Brb gonna build a new college that’ll last a 1000 years, inculcating virtue in successive generations of disinterested leaders of our republic
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews