Debates continue to rage about whether students in American universities should be required to master a common core of knowledge. This text traces the emergence of a classical model that became the standard of the curriculum in the 19th century and remains at the core of contemporary controversies.

"A conscientious and important history of the study of classicism in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries... Ms. Winterer sheds light on the virtual disappearance of the ancients from the modern imagination." -- Wall Street Journal
"It is, without question, one of the greatest contributions to (the field) yet published." -- American Historical Review