What Are the Great Books?

The “Great Books” are those books which have endured for centuries because of their obvious value. These books come down to us with the recommendations of the ages because each successive generation has seen fit to preserve them and pass them on to the next. As such, Great Books are those which speak to the universal human experience. In other words, these books touch on topics of interest that never go out of style. Some questions and ideas are asked and pondered anew again and again by every thinking person because they wrestle with what it means to be human. Why are we here and what is our purpose? What does it mean to live a good life? How ought mankind to live with one another? Is there a God and, if so, what is he like and can we know him as he is? These and many other great questions and topics make up the content of the “great conversation” that has been enduring since man started putting pen to paper (or even chisel to stone). From Homer to Herodotus, from Boethius to Beowulf, from Anselm to Austen, the conversation endures in the form of Great Books, books you just have to read in order to instantly see why they have been so loved and how they have helped to many others before you.

These guides are a huge help to me and worth every penny to the homeschool parent or autodidact.

-Truman Angell

Join The Great Conversation!

Study The Great Books invites you to join the great conversation by reading the Great Books, as well as those texts which we like to call “Great Books adjacent.” Our goal is to provide you with the tools and resources you need to pursue these wonderful books with confidence. Our study guides are designed to aid readers to understand the vocabulary being used, to get the information you need on the historic people being mentioned or characters in the story, to familiarize you with the places being mentioned, to inform you about the events being referred to, and to make you aware of the great ideas which the text is interacting with. Beyond all of that we provide you with questions to aid your study of the book. Grammar questions will make sure you understand what you have read, the content itself. Logic questions will ask you to reason about what you have read, to interpret, to make reasonable inferences, and to compare and contrast certain elements. Rhetoric questions will isolate an idea in the text you have read and ask you to analyze it as a thing in itself and to express your own thoughts on the matter with good reason and argumentation. Finally, our Theological questions will take you to the Christian Scriptures to let God’s word come to bear upon what you have read and to help you think Christianly about it.

Who Are These Study Guides For?

The STGB study guides are perfect for many different settings and situations. We consider these guides to be tools which can be used in almost any setting where learning and joy in reading is the goal. As such, our material is being used right now by Classical Christian Schools, by Homeschooling Families all over the world (literally, we have heard from families in Australia, India, England, Germany, and Brazil, let alone all of the United States who are using STGB materials to great effect), by Individuals just seeking to grow personally, and by Book Club Leaders who are hosting friends from work, church, or their neighborhood to dig into Great Books together. People use our study guides and other resources as tools to get after the education and understanding they’ve always wanted for themselves and for their children, but often feel they have missed out on. Well, miss out no more! We are here to help.

Study The Great Books does a brilliant job of championing classical education through quality literature. Their study guides are thorough, insightful, and easy to use.

– Cassie Troja

What’s The Plan?

Our plan is to make as many helpful Great Books study guides as possible, as long as the Lord gives us strength to do so, so that there will always be new material being added and the joy of learning will never stop. You want to learn more and read more and have the help you need and we want to be there for you, no matter in what setting you are using the material!

Beyond thinking individually, however, a big part of our plan is to produce a complete six year, 7th-12th grade, Integrated Humanities Curriculum which will be perfectly suited for Classical Christian Schools and Homeschooling families to adopt as a complete plan of education for all their humanities needs. This complete curriculum will include:

• 6 years of primary source readings and study in History (7-12th grade)
• 6 years of primary source readings and study in Literature (7-12th grade)
• 3 years of Classical Logic (7-9th grade)
• 3 years of Classical writing (7-9th grade)
• 3 years of Classical Rhetoric (10-12th grade)

Our curriculum will give students a complete Humanities education and it will focus on the integration of all of the above disciplines so that their learning become “cross-pollinated” and they learn these are really are not and isolated or individual subjects, per se, but only different angles at which we learn to think and express ourselves well and interact with and soak in what is true, good, and beautiful. Always, in all these things, we affirm and reflect upon the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all human learning and understanding. You can see our “Theological and Cultural Commitments” for more on this. 

What Else Is Study The Great Books Up To?

In addition to our Study Guides and Integrated Humanities Curriculum STGB is also working to publish other tools to help study the Great Books (such as our unique Commonplace Books), as well as new editions of Great Books, and also new books which are conversant with the Great Tradition of Western Classical Thought. Our Great Books “Annotation Editions” will not only pay it forward by keeping books in print which deserve to be, but also they will give you the room you need to take good notes and really mark up the books for all they’re worth using the STGB Annotation Style. You will also soon begin to see new books from new authors. Works of fiction, philosophy, theology, education, and more will be published under the STGB Press brand and they will all be toward the end of serving the Christian thinker to grow and expand their understanding for the glory of God and to take pleasure in good story as sub-creators underneath the One True Author of all good things.