2011 Great Books Series

In 1947, Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, and Professor Mortimer J. Adler, established the Great Books Foundation to draw together passionate readers to discuss enduring issues and ideas. Three years later, they joined Walter Paepcke to form the Aspen Institute. Join us for this year’s eight-week exploration of the Great Books. Aspen Institute Director of Seminars, Dr. Todd Breyfogle will moderate this year’s series. Reading selections include ARISTOTLE, Politics; SMITH, Wealth of Nations; SHAKESPEARE, Anthony and Cleopatra; KIERKEGAARD, The Knight of Faith; HERODOTUS, The Persian Wars; LOCKE, Of Civil Government; SWIFT, Gulliver's Travels; THOREAU, Civil Disobedience.

Past Events in this Series
Date	Location	Contact
2011 Great Books Series
January 26, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
February 2, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
February 9, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
February 16, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
February 23, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
March 2, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
March 9, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914
2011 Great Books Series
March 16, 2011	Aspen, CO	Beth Slater 970.544.7914

Todd Breyfogle joined the Aspen Institute as Director of Seminars in January 2008. A Colorado native, he was a Boettcher Scholar at Colorado College, where he did his B.A. in Classics-History-Politics. He then attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, studying Ancient and Modern History (B.A.) and Patristic and Modern Theology (M.St.). He earned his Ph.D. as a Century Fellow and Javits Fellow at the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on St. Augustine's political theology. He is the editor of Literary Imagination, Ancient and Modern: Essays in Honor of David Grene (University of Chicago Press, 1999), has authored a number of articles ranging from Augustine to J. S. Bach to contemporary political theory, and is a co-editor of a five-volume commentary on Augustine's City of God for Oxford University Press.

Breyfogle serves on several non-profit boards and edits The American Oxonian, the quarterly publication of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars. From 1995 to 2000, Breyfogle was a Fellow and Program Officer at Liberty Fund, where he gained extensive experience organizing and facilitating great books discussions. From 2000-2007, he directed the University Honors Program at the University of Denver, where he also taught interdisciplinary seminars in the arts and humanities and advised students applying for prestigious post-graduate fellowships and scholarships. He has also taught graduate courses in theology as an adjunct professor at the Iliff School of Theology and was a visiting professor in the department of philosophy and religion at the University of Tulsa in 2007-2008. He served as a moderator for the Aspen Institute before joining the Institute staff.