Becoming “Woke” Rightly Understood: Peter Lawler on Liberal Arts and the Human Soul in American Heresies and Higher Education

Abstract

Abstract Becoming “Woke” Rightly Understood is an examination of Peter Augustine Lawler’s sometimes lighthearted, often ironic, and yet equally profound analysis of the current state of higher education. Lawler’s treatment is panoramic; it presents both the warts and beauty marks of higher education. The book itself is an example of the traditional goals of higher education. It forces readers to think by offering arguments for and against the liberal arts. Lawler is aware that people fully understand ideas if they work them out for themselves. His analysis wanders from pop culture to classical political philosophy with many stops in between. American Heresies and Higher Education forces readers to wonder, not only about higher education, but also about what is best for the human soul.