Free Thinking

Whether you skipped college or need a refresher or supplement to what you learned, humanities professor Joseph Manca shows how a college-level liberal arts education can be essentially free and accessible in ‘Free Thinking: How to Educate Yourself in the Liberal Arts’. Professor Manca provides listings and commentaries to help you study and enjoy high-quality texts, works of art, films, and classical music.

The book lays out a curriculum that, like college, one can follow over four years, or at your own pace. The chapters are arranged—not along the lines of traditional academic departments—but more like life itself, with categories such as love and desire, utopia and dystopia, and our relationship to the natural world. This is not a traditional Canon, but is instead a lively listing of stimulating fiction, nonfiction, and important artworks and music.

Joseph Manca is a Professor of Art History and the Nina J. Cullinan Professor of Art and Art History in the School of Humanities of Rice University. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and for decades has taught core humanities courses and art history classes. His published books include the award-winning ‘George Washington’s Eye’ (2012; Johns Hopkins University Press) and ‘Shaker Vision’ (2019; University of Massachusetts Press). He currently serves at Rice as Director of Undergraduates Studies in Art History.

 ‘There is no precedent for a work like this. It is scholarly and down to earth at the same time.  This is an impressive and well-researched study that is both intellectual and useful. It certainly will be useful, above all, for general readers or those unable to participate in a traditional college curriculum.’- Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Ph.D. Harvard University, Professor Emerita of Art History, University of New Mexico