I think it is also a reflection about how those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

@snytiger6 True. Several of these books were required reading when I was in school. SOMEONE wanted us to think!

@LucyLoohoo I remember talk about a "classical education". I graduated high school in 1980, and only got the slightest sliver of what was left of that. In college, which I started in the 1990's, there was no hint of it. I've read classics on myown, but without classroom discussion, to consider different points, I doubt that just reading it by itself was enough.

@snytiger6 As I recall, we read the books and then had discussions about the topics. If you were born during the 50s, your parents/teachers remembered the McCarthy ''hearings,'' when everyone who WAS anyone was accused of being a ''Commie'' and the government was in the grip of a self-satisfied Senator named McCarthy. I think the classes we took/books we read were in part a reaction to that terrible time.