It is difficult to discern what Alex Beam's A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books objects to most about the Great Books: the rejection of relativism that deems some books truly great, or the marketing of great books to mediocre minds. In a smug, condescending book that often sneers but rarely speaks, Alex Beam looks down on autodidact Mort Adler, University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins, and Encyclopedia Britannica publisher William Benton from below. Read my review at ISI's First Principles.