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| Authors: Judy Jones, William Wilson
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $23.10
You Save: $11.90 (34%)
Rating:  98 reviews
Sales Rank: 2036
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 720
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0345468902
Dewey Decimal Number: 031.02
EAN: 9780345468901
Publication Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 yes September 5, 2005
36 out of 72 found this review helpful
I give it five stars, as the humor helps dislodge negative thinking, emotional and knee-jerk reactions surrounding so-called "intellectual" subjects.
Incomplete is a bit of a misnomer: within its context, its relatively all-encompassing, after its fashion.
If it doesnt spontaneously slipstream an entire education into your mind, it is at least a start.
(( Becoming dogmatic, even fanatical, can be a negative side effect of a real 'Incomplete' education. To be able to negotiate ideas, transcend them, etc. is more the essence. Becoming too analytical is also not the purpose of education (educare: a leading out, not a stuffing in.) Maintaining a balance of understanding and measured humanitarianism, is. ))
Yet I'd rather someone directed such money to a copy of Benet's somewhat pricier and bigger 'Benet's reader's encyclopedia,' overall a better investment. The choice ? Its hard to say. Benet's is larger, tightly texted, and is capable of alienating those who may be more receptive to the 'Incomplete Ed'n.' Which is better to start with? The one that will not alienate from the general path of broadening one's education, is the thing to start with.
'Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia' comes much recommended. 'One read-thru can triple your general knowledge' says one Amazon reviewer. (Rather gives the lie to Benet's as a dilettante's mere reference book, or a pricey/classy crutch exclusively for English majors. See reviews.) Yet its definitions are brief. You will find yourself hunting for context with Benet's. Still useful, tho.
(If folklore is more your bent, your lit. ref. of choice may be Brewers' Dictionary, not Benet's.)
Taken all together, 'Incomplete' is also not as good as, say, the long out-of-print Harry Elmer Barnes, ' Cultural and Intellectual History of the Western World' ( 3 vol., 1300 plus pages !)or the additon of approaches I have added below. Yet, accompanied by Hirsh's ' Dictionary of Cultural Literacy' and such-like, it can constitute a good start. And better than trying to read a multi-volume encyclopedia all at once.
Take these two Ivy league liberals, and balance them with the 'right-wingers' of the 'Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.' and you will be at least assured of symbolic overall balance. They should approach a kind of introduction to what may be missing from your education.
Harry Elmer Barnes tells of how Aldous Huxley, in his essays, novels, and short stories, managed to encompass practically the entirety of world knowledge. I think anyone who has on their shelf Huxleys' 'Complete Essays' (6 volumes, sold seperate, Ivan R. Dee Publishers,) Philip Weiner's 'Dictionary of the History of Ideas' (four or five volumes,) and perhaps Harry Elmer Barnes' own 1,350-page , 3 vol effort, has a functional base for their own complete education. *** If someone knows better, won't they say it here? ***
Certainly no one should miss Aldous Huxley's small essay book, ' Brave New World Revisited,' even if all you have is a vague notion about the original fiction work.
Isaiah Berlin is generally considered one of the best authors you could read, in his many volumes, about the history of ideas.
WH Auden collection of essays, ' Forewards and Afterwords,' also ought not to be omitted from anyones autodidactic path. Many and various subjects discussed there.
Add, for only twenty dollars, Barzun's ' Dawn to Decadence.' It's worth it. I have already got more than the cover price out of this book. The abridgment of Toynbee's 'Study of History' is highly touted as 'the one book you must read, even if you never read another(I paraphrase)' by the Nation magazine. . .
Aldous Huxley, in a 1930s essay, said to read Montaigne's essays, balance it with Pascals' Pensees, and add David Hume, Spinozas' Ethics and Correspondence, and Henri Poincare's works on science philosphy, as excellent intellectual background.
More usefully than a dictionary, add a good thesaurus to read yourself to sleep on to improve the gradient pastel subtleties of your vocab., and you're on your way with a basic educational (inc. Incomplete ed'n, Hirsh dictionary) that's functionally hard to beat, for starters.
McGraw Hill's smaller 'Readers Handbook,' paper, touts itself as a must have for any shelf. Checking up on it, I agreed, and bought a copy. Until you graduate to the larger readers' handbooks ( Holman, etc.) it should stand you in good stead for awhile.
Many own several thesaurii. What a useful way to relatively quickly begin to organize words - and hence ideas - in one's eye and mind ! In fact, one useful way to begin to enrich one's education might be to carry a thesaurus around with one continually, and read it thru at various moments. Keeping eyes and ears receptive, an enriched vocab will begin to allow you to access ideas all over the place.
Any better ideas ? I'd love to know. Thats the main reason I write this review: someone speak up, and 'add to!'
Jaeger's pricey classic trilogy 'Padeia' on ancient Greek culture, might be useful to add for many folks( now out in paper, 3 vol.) in spite of its cover price. I know I have added it to my shelf !
The old standby/ introductory 'History of Western Knowledge ' by van Doren, at @ 500pp., may be useful to many.
'Passion of the Western Mind ' is a possibility, as newer than anything Durant has done since he died, and in high favor by the late Joseph Campbell. Let its latter-paged politically correct /new age 'rap' balance the perceived stodge of Barzun's effort.
Larger (800+ pp.) and now in paperback, is Peter Watson's 'From fire to freud: a history of ideas.' Seems to get good reviews here on Amazon, tho it may not substitute for , say, reading Isaiah Berlin.
From here, you might move on to Adler's Great Books Western World series and supplements (heed his fiction list,) enriching the lacunae with such as may be found in 'Dr. Eliot's five foot shelf' of Harvard Classics and Shelf of Fiction.
Yet heed what Harvard has to say on the internet, about the idea that simply reading gobs of famous ancient classics, is not their idea of a complete education. Many famous classics are very time-specific, for example. Much of their virtue is revealed by understanding their contexts, geographical and historical(ie, 'place- and time-line virtues.')
Still it wouldn't destroy you to selectively graze such texts, being careful not to: A. be overly blown away by such revelations as you may find there; B. reject a text, like Plato, just because you disagree with a few of his more extreme statements; C. neglect proper digestion of the classics by merely finding in them stuff that more or less reinforces only what you already know, and ignoring ideas that may be overall difficult to assimiliate immediately, yet be worth your reasonable long-term consideration.
Add Burtons, 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' Kant's 'Critique of pure Reason, ' Schrodingers' 'What is Life?,' Heidegger's 'Being and Time,' 'What is called Thinking?' Wittgensteins' 'Ph. Investigations,' 'Blue and Brown Notebooks,' Schwab's 'Gods and Heroes', Borges 'Dreamtigers' and such, poems of GMHopkins, Pound's 'Personae ' and 'Cantos,' TS Eliot's 'Four Quartets,' Dylan Thomas, WCWilliams 'Paterson,' and you start to profitably walk the realm of the Great Books schools. (cut 'n paste)
"Never at Rest,' a large bio of Newton, enthusiastically recommended by critics as a must-own for any educated person.
Jacques Barzun thought Wm James 'Principles of Psychology ' as a must read for 'anyone who would profess to call themselves educated'. At 1,000+ pp., it may have something to offer you.
Interspersing such readings with Philip Weiner, 'Dict. of History of Ideas,' old edition now online, may prove highly useful to many.
A purely liberal education isn't everything. I dunno about yourself, but I have decided, after some research into the vague realm of relative reliability of oft-changing science texts, to add the huge 'McGraw Hills' Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms' to my shelf. I expect grazing through its two-thousand-plus pages, to gradually brighten my receptiveness to scientific references as I encounter them in various places.
At any rate, a real mind is no joke to acquire. Sacrifices must be made, obstacles removed. Want a real education? You're on your own. Don't kid yourself, nor 'dry-rot at ease til the Judgement Day,' yet 'gather ye your stones to build your Basilica!'
To this we add two final aphorisms of education: ' Something of everything, and everything of something,' and 'Drink deep, or taste not, the Pierian spring: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing !'
An Armchair Education November 9, 2006
34 out of 37 found this review helpful
Have you longed to be able to pick up a reference book for an instant, uncomplicated answer to that vexing question Do you shrink from discussing such topics as why all of Shakespeare's comedies are not "thigh slappers"? Or maybe you caught yourself referring to Evelyn Waugh as "she".
An Incomplete Education is just the sort of book that provides a framework in twelve areas of knowledge including the Arts, Philosophy, Political Science, World History, Music and much more. The original edition was published in 1987; the third updated and expanded edition came out in 2006. It's a book of knowledge that is also very well paced and entertaining. For example, in the literature section, they identify "twelve fictional characters with whom you should have at least a nodding acquaintance"; in political science: "What you need to know before answering a personals ad in the International Herald Tribune".
According to authors Judy Jones and William Wilson, "In a world of bits and bytes, of reruns and fast forwards, of information overloads , . . it feels good to be grounded."
Clearly, this is not a COMPLETE Education. To wit: the title. After all, how would anyone define what might be a COMPLETE education. Rather, the book is a useful volume which helped me to organize my thinking. It is a companion that sits on my bookshelf "at the ready" when questions arise, (what do I really understand about the difference between Shiites and Sunnis) or when a Lexicon is needed to settle the question of whether continual or continuous is the appropriate word. It is a great addition to anyone's library, or a gift for someone who asks a lot of questions. I found myself savoring--and chuckling over-- each section.
Entertaining and Educational. Outstanding reading. January 4, 1999
31 out of 35 found this review helpful
I'm buying this book to replace the 2 copies that were "borrowed" by "friends" who "forgot" to return them. I've learned my lesson -- I'm going to hide this copy. Simply put, I love this book. I don't understand the customer reviewers who didn't appreciate the fact that this isn't simply a dry compendium of facts. There are plenty of books out there (can you say encyclopedia?) that fit that bill. In fact, this book is specifically designed for people who don't like to read serious books full of dry information because, well, think about it; if you liked serious books full of dry information, you wouldn't be reading this book because you'd already know all the stuff that's in it. Does that make sense? No? O.K, try his: buy the book. You'll like it.
 Too bad. January 23, 2008
30 out of 37 found this review helpful
Well, I was really looking forward to it, and read a fair portion of the Religion section, but found the tone of it really annoying, not enough depth on the subject, and the author makes too many inside jokes. If you get the jokes, you already know the information and you don't need to read it. If you don't get the jokes, it is leaves you as an outsider and learn nothing.
I'll keep reading it, and amend the review if I have to.
My advice:
Go to Barnes & Noble and take a look (and just to be fair to our host, consider ordering it from here). If you read a section, and enjoy it, buy it. If it is offputting like it was to me, don't.
Terrible Book July 13, 2007
24 out of 49 found this review helpful
Hard to use as a quick reference guide, filled with sarcastic anti-Bush comments, a complete turn off. Glad it only cost me less than $10. Waste of money, going to trash the book.
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