Essential Knowledge
Essential Knowledge was a collection of twelve (12) posts by Z Man written in 2017. In his own words:
“Instead of generating a book list, these posts are about the topics, concepts and skills that [every] modern educated person should know… Podcasts, blog posts and other internet resources are [also] included in the source material linked in these posts.”
Along with his Theory of Everything series, this collection makes for a good introduction to the foundations of Z Man’s worldview.
- Essential Knowledge, Part 1
- A while back, someone suggested I do a post on the books I think are important…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 2
- A thorough understanding of human history has been the hallmark of an educated man in the West since the Middle Ages…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 3
- Probably the first paradox presented to a young person is the age old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
- Essential Knowledge, Part 4
- The traditional way in the West of teaching history is to start with the three phases of history. There is the beginning, the middle and the end…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 5
- Rome is such a big topic, it not only deserves a post of its own, but it can be studied in isolation as it encompasses so much of Western history…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 6
- One of the challenges that arises when trying to list the things an educated man should know about the past is that the past keeps happening…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 7
- The great events of Western history almost always revolve around a revolution or a great war, where the nation, or even the West as a whole, comes out the other side as something radically different…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 8
- The great inflection point in Western history is probably the Renaissance, which was the start of the great flowering of European culture and intellectual life…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 9
- A liberal education has always meant a deep knowledge of cultural history, which inevitably meant art and literature. Sadly, the humanities have taken a beating from the Cult-Marx crusaders in the last half century…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 10
- We left off the literature portion of this series at the Romantic period…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 11
- The truth is, there’s probably only 100 books and writers that have a claim to being essential to the English canon…
- Essential Knowledge, Part 12
- Prior to the technological revolution, a common lament from geezers was that the younger generations no longer had a mastery of the written word…
To keep Z Man's voice alive for future generations, we’ve archived his writings from the original site at thezman.com. We’ve edited out ancillary links, advertisements, and donation requests to focus on his written content.
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