37 pages 1 hour read

Fareed Zakaria

In Defense Of A Liberal Education

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

“An open-ended exploration of knowledge is seen as a road to nowhere.”


(Chapter 1, Page 16)

Zakaria objects to the way that many contemporary Americans regard a liberal arts degree as useless, arguing that they overlook The Value of a Liberal Arts Education. Many Americans see skills-based education as more useful because they can directly correlate it to a career, but Zakaria believes that these assumptions are based on erroneous ideas about what a liberal arts education can provide.

Quotation Mark Icon

“The great danger facing American higher education is not that too many students are studying the liberal arts.”


(Chapter 1, Page 17)

Zakaria provides data showing that the study of the liberal arts has been in decline throughout the past few decades. Thus, the argument that some critics make against the liberal arts as overstudied and useless is unsupported by the facts.

Quotation Mark Icon

“‘Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?’ Florida’s Rock Scott asked, ‘I don’t think so.’”


(Chapter 1, Page 19)

Leaders across the political spectrum have denigrated the liberal arts and perpetuated the myth that liberal arts degrees are useless. Former Florida governor Rick Scott, for example, suggested that anthropology degrees are useless because he could not understand their application to a specific career in service of the state. Zakaria, by contrast, argues that politicians like Scott should recognize The Role of Education in Democracy instead of focusing only on specific jobs-based objectives.