As delightful as it is illuminating, An Incomplete Education packs ten thousand years of culture into a single superbly readable volume. This is a book to celebrate, to share, to give and receive, to pore over and browse through, and to return to again and again.
THIRD EDITION An Incomplete Education 3,684 THINGS YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED BUT PROBABLY DIDN'T From Chaucer to Chechnya . . . Mary Magdalene to Machiavelli . . . Héloise and Abélard to Sacco and Vanzetti . . . S to 71 . . . the Babylonian Captivity to the Free-Market Economy . . . Mme. du Barry to Matthew Barney . . . Ramapithecus to Stephen Dedalus . . . Norma to NAFTA PLUS: HOW TO TELL KEATS FROM SHELLEY JUDY JONES & WILLIAM WILSON U.S.A. $35.00 Canada $47.00 W hen it was originally published in 1987, An Incomplete Education became a surprise bestseller. Now this instant classic has been completely updated, outfitted with a whole new arsenal of indis- pensable knowledge on global affairs, popular cul- ture, economic trends, scientific principles, and modern arts. Here's your chance to brush up on all those subjects you slept through in school, reacquaint yourself with all the facts you once knew (then promptly forgot), catch up on major developments in the world today, and become the Renaissance man or woman you always knew you could be! How do you tell the Balkans from the Caucasus? What's the difference between fission and fusion? Whigs and Tories? Shiites and Sunnis? Deduction and induction? Why aren't all Shakespearean come- dies necessarily thigh-slappers? What are transcen- dental numbers, and what are they good for? What really happened in Plato's cave? Is postmodernism dead or just having a bad-hair day? And for extra credit, when should you use the adjective continual and when should you use continuous? An Incomplete Education answers these and thousands of other questions with incomparable wit, style, and clarity. American Studies, Art History, Economics, Film, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Sci- ence, Psychology, Religion, Science, and World His- tory: Here's the bottom line on each of these major disciplines, distilled to its essence and served up with consummate flair. In this revised edition you'll find a vitally expanded treatment of international issues, reflecting the seis- mic geopolitical upheavals of the past decade, from economic free-fall in South America to Central Africa's world war, and from violent radicalization in the Muslim world to the crucial trade agreements that are defining globalization for the twenty-first cen- tury. And don't forget to read the section A Nervous American's Guide to Living and Loving on Five Con- (continued on back flap) (continued from front flap) tinents before you answer a personal ad in the Interna- tional Herald Tribune. As delightful as it is illuminating, An Incomplete Edu- cation packs ten thousand years of culture into a single superbly readable volume. This is a book to celebrate, to share, to give and receive, to pore over and browse through, and to return to again and again. ABOUT THE AUTHORS JUDY JONES is a freelance writer who lives in Prince- ton, Newjersey. WILLIAM WILSON was also a free- lance writer. Wilson went to Yale and Jones to Smith, but both have maintained that they got their real edu- cations in the process of writing this book. William Wilson died in 1999- Jacket design: Beck Stvan Jacket photograph:© Laurie Rubin/Getty Images www.ballantinebooks.com Ballantine Books New York, N.Y. © 2006 by Random House, Inc. PRAISE FOR An Incomplete Education "AN ASTONISHING AMOUNT OF INFORMATION." —The New York Times "IT IS PRECISELY THE BOOK THAT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED WITHOUT KNOWING THAT I ALWAYS WANTED IT It's for people who have huge gaps in their knowledge of specific areas of culture and intellectual history. . . . Cheerfully, subversively anti-academic." — San Francisco Chronicle "MEMORIZE THIS BOOK AND YOU CAN DROP NAMES, ALLUSIONS, AND ARCANE TERMS WITH THE BEST OF THEM, whether you (or they) know what they're talking about or not. . . . The book will rekindle warm memories of your favorite courses, favorite professors, favorite books, favorite theories, favorite philosophical paradoxes." —Chicago Tribune "RUSH TO YOUR NEAREST BOOKSTORE AND BUY An Incomplete Education [It] brings you 10,000 years of information. Imagine the power of knowing where Watteau went when the lights went out!" —New York Daily News "ARTICULATE AND IRREVERENT, crammed with facts, figures, drawings, definitions, and historic information sufficient to fill your every gap . . . Judy Jones and William Wilson . . . tell you everything you should've learned but didn't." —Esquire "THIS BOOK GETS AN A+." —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ISBN 0-345-46890-2 INCOMPLETE EDUCATION [...]... great thinker, a staunch individualist, an unshakable 9 IO AN I N C O M P L E T E E D U C A T I O N optimist, and a first-class human being, even if you wouldn't have wanted to know him yourself W h a t You Didn't Find Out Until College: T h a t you' d probably be a better person if you had known him yourself and that almost any one of his essays could see you through an identity crisis, if not a nervous... problem You' re feeling stymied You worry that you may not use spare time to maximum advantage, that the world is passing you by, that maybe it would make sense to subscribe to a third newsweekly Your coffee's getting cold The phone rings You can't bring yourself to answer it Or it's like this: You do know what a quark is You can answer the phone It is an attractive person you have recently met How are you? ... Hitler, but on a prostrate Germany You XIV I N T R O D U C T I O N T O T H E O R I G I N A L E D I T I O N know: The will to power The Ûbermensch The transvaluation of values Don't you agree, old bean?" Fortunately, you have cable—and a Stouffer's lasagna in the freezer So what's your problem? Weren't you supposed to have learned all this stuff back in college? Sure you were, but then, as now, you had your... "Self-Reliance." I f you were spending a few days on Transcendentalism, you probably also had to read "The Over-Soul." If, on the other hand, your English teacher swung toward an essay like "The Poet," it was, no doubt, accompanied by a snatch of Emersonian verse— most likely "Brahma" or "Days." (You already knew Emerson's "Concord Hymn" from gradeschool history lessons, although you probably didn't. .. Don't feel you have to read all of any given chapter on a single tank of gas And don't feel you have to get from point A to point B by lunchtime; better to slow down and enjoy the scenery Do, however, try to stay alert Even with the potholes fixed, you' ll want to be braced for hair pin turns (and the occasional five-car collision) up ahead XV AN INCOMPLETE EDUCATION O N E Contents * American Literature... or your own conscience, it isn't anymore Most of us have more databases, cable stations, CDs, telephone messages, e-mail, books, newspapers, and Post-its than we can possibly sort through in one lifetime; we don't need any additional information we don't know what to do with, thanks What we do need, more than ever, in our opinion, is the opportunity to have up-close-and-personal relationships, to be... famous American of the eighteenth century (after George Washing ton) and the closest thing we've ever had to a Renaissance man What You Didn't Find Out Until College: T h a t Franklin had as many detractors as a d mirers, for whom his shrewdness, pettiness, hypocrisy, and nonstop philandering embodied all the worst traits o f the American character, of American capitalism, and of the Protestant ethic... at your end of the phone Clearly this per son is into overkill, but that doesn't mean you don't have to say something back India you could field But Indonesia? Fortunately, you have cable—and a Stouffer's lasagna in the freezer Or it's like this' You know what a quark is Also something about Indonesia The two of you enjoy the movie The new person agrees to go with you to a dinner party one of your... between being America's number-one Puritan clergyman and the only son in a family with eleven children What You Were Supposed to Have Learned in High School: Edwards' historical importance as quintessential Puritan thinker and hero of the Great Awaken ing, the religious revival that swept N e w E n gland from the late 1730s to 1750 5 6 AN I N C O M P L E T E W h a t You Didn't Find Out Until College:... rediscovered in 1958 W h a t You Were Supposed to Have Learned in H i g h School: T h a t T h o r e a u was one o f the great American eccentrics and the farthest out of the Transcendentalists, and that he believed you should spend your life breaking bread with the birds and the woodchucks instead of going for a killing in the futures market like your old man W h a t You Didn't Find Out Until College: T h a t . 0-3 4 5-4 689 0-2 INCOMPLETE EDUCATION