Each issue of Lapham's Quarterly is made up of many ingredients - introduction by Lapham, short quotes, historical selections, pictures, original essays - all on a common theme. How these ingredients hold together seems to be in part determined by the nature of the subject matter. For example in the last issue, The Book of Nature, I found the historical selections to be haphazard while the original essays were wonderful. In this issue, Ways of Learning, I found the quotes, pictures and historical selections - the main body of the journal - to be almost poetic in achieving Lapham's stated goal of letting the wisdom of the past speak to universal truths relevant to the present. In particular the choice of pictures and placement really sent a strong message that either I had not noticed in the past or the editors have improved their visual wit. At first I was a little skeptical of the subject matter, education, as being a topic that would gel well. But it turns out to be profound listening to great minds speak about education and learning, it really made me question, re-think and discover new things about myself and my approach to learning and education. Unfortunately the last section of original essays was weak, only one of six, by April Bernard was outstanding for me. Overall I would say this is my second favorite issue so far, behind States of War.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )