Hillsdale's Common Reading Program by David Randall | NAS

Hillsdale's Common Reading Program by David Randall | NAS

"Fundamentally, Hillsdale believes that a liberal arts education is designed to liberate the human person. Hillsdale's curriculum teaches a willing acceptance of the discipline and virtue that enables students to live a fully human life and prepares them for self-government and civic participation. The College's two summer readings introduce students to this life of liberty and virtue.

"In the Nicomachean Ethics (ca. 330 BC), Aristotle introduces the famous concept of 'the golden mean'--the understanding that virtue is the middle ground between two extremes, such as courage, which lies between recklessness and cowardice. Richard Brookhiser's 1996 biography of George Washington, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington, narrates how Washington's virtue allowed him to navigate the challenges not only of forging a new nation on the battlefield but also of founding it through laws and leadership."