Professor of Classics @UofMaryland; interested in humanism, classics, higher education, and jazz. RTs ≠ endorsements. New book: https://xitter.gq/t.co/mkDLmJUFxo
Kensington, MD
Joined December 2017
- Tweets3.3K
- Following491
- Followers2.2K
- Likes47.7K
Eric Adler retweeted
I’ll be giving the autumn Pharos lectures on one of the central puzzles in my new book, First Among Equals: “How did equality become an egalitarian ideal?”
The first lecture will take place tomorrow (Tuesday, 26 Oct) at 5pm in New College. Full details and registration below!
The Pharos Autumn Lectures 2026:
Professor Teresa Bejan (Oriel College) - 'First Among Equals: How Did Equality Become an Egalitarian Ideal?'
Tuesdays 27 October, 10 November and 24 November, 5pm, Noel Salter Room, New College.
eventbrite.co.uk/e/teresa-be…
@tmbejan
Eric Adler retweeted
Further, once we look at research production, it's hard not to notice the ways in which knowledge in the humanities, to legitimate itself, has been forced to ape the sciences.
Eric Adler retweeted
All of the structural incentives are ordered to research production. We do not have to denigrate research production to notice that there is a clear lack of balance in the incentives that have disproportionately harmed the humanities.
Eric Adler retweeted
I am going to say something that very few people want to hear, but I think it's true. The only way to "save the Humanities" is through serious gen ed reform that most universities don't want to undertake.
The hour is very late.
The number of people writing dissertations in the humanities has collapses, now the same thing is happening in the social sciences.
I'd wager that we will see a similar trend in psychology and other fields before long. Cuts in funding, the tight academic job market, and AI are rapidly changing the university and cratering graduate programs.
Eric Adler retweeted
Jen is obviously right here. The R1 model aims at the production of knowledge through research. The humanistic disciplines have always fit strangely into this framework, because traditionally they aim at producing a certain kind of person through teaching.
Eric Adler retweeted
The humanities began outside the university and began entering it in the 1420s. The effect, over time, was to turn humane letters into philology. Maybe it's time to recover Petrarch's vision.
It's no secret that there is a crisis in the humanities in U.S. higher education. The American Academy of Sciences and Letters has done a great service in diagnosing the crisis in this important new report by a team of scholars led by Josiah Ober of Stanford.
academysciencesletters.org/w…
Eric Adler retweeted
Today is the official release date for my new book, First Among Equals: Visions of Equality before Egalitarianism (Belknap, 2026).
It explores how and why “equality” became, rather suddenly, a basis on which ordinary men and women could make political demands in early modern England.
hup.harvard.edu/books/978067…
Eric Adler retweeted
Paul Elmer More, a largely forgotten American intellectual who influenced thinkers like T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis, believed that human flourishing requires more than freedom to pursue our desires.
It requires the discipline to restrain them.
More called this the “inner check”—the moral capacity to orient our lives toward truth, virtue, and higher goods.
Read more from Michael Lucchese of @LawLiberty in Religion & Liberty Daily.
ALT Surreal illustration of human figures with cosmic elements and text about Paul Elmer More's humanism.
Eric Adler retweeted
I was reminded that it’s the fifth anniversary of my favorite stand up comedian’s death. My eulogy from back then in below ⬇️ one of my favorite things I’ve written
Eric Adler retweeted
I have a piece out in "The Point" today, about reason and responsibility in public discourse.
#education
#philosophy
New online, @ScribnerUMCP on recovering the internal goods of academia in the wake of the Arday affair:
thepointmag.com/politics/int…
Eric Adler retweeted
Highly recommend my friend @ProfEricAdler he’s written two books about the more and less recent history of classics instruction in American higher ed: Classics and the Culture Wars is post-1945 and touches directly on Bloom. Battle of the Classics is earlier but it canvasses more recent debates about the value of humanities in the introduction.
Eric Adler retweeted
I wrote about Locke, the liberal establishment, and the role of universities for Persuasion—
With many thanks to Luke Hallam and @Yascha_Mounk!
Eric Adler retweeted
A nice review by @ProfEricAdler. Bonus for using PHILIPPICS, ULTRAMONTANE, and PERSPICACITY in successive sentences. (I felt like I was losing at Scrabble!)
lawliberty.org/book-review/t…
Eric Adler retweeted
In which I recommend essays by @ProfEricAdler, @estice, @MarcNovicoff, @EliLake, @lisaelaineh, @dgelles, and others.
In this week's Water Dipper, Jeff Bilbro recommends essays about Homer, Hopkins, and humans. frontporchrepublic.com/2026/…
Eric Adler retweeted
Thanks to @JaycelAdkins, I was made aware of a high-quality discussion of my book *The Battle of the Classics*, by a prominent YouTuber. It's excellent and those interested in defending the humanities will want to take a look:
youtube.com/watch?v=S8GCcQY6…
Eric Adler retweeted
Wrote a piece on Gulliver's Travels.
"Sectarian Trifles and Political Necessity: Swift on Lilliputian Religion in Gulliver’s Travels"
Thanks to Dustin Gish, editor of a special series on Literature and Philosophy.
link 👇 in tweet below
Eric Adler retweeted
@laphamsquart has published an extract from Lost In Thought, a podcast about para-academic institutes (eg @catherineproj), AND a podcast about Chap 99 of Moby-Dick! See replies ...
Eric Adler retweeted
Hugely excited to see our edited volume with @OUPAcademic now out in the world!
The Political Thought of John Locke: New Perspectives, co-edited with the indefatigable @DavidRArmitage and Felix Waldmann
academic.oup.com/book/63006
Eric Adler retweeted
Última recomendación del año: este libro de Eric Adler es la mejor defensa de las humanidades que conozco. Sin ingenuidades ni pacaterías. Espero que algún sello se anime a traducirlo al castellano. Edita @OxUniPress
