"Does it matter which books college students read? Indeed it does, contends James Atlas. What we read has crucial implications for both our development as individuals and our ability to establish consensus on national issues. We are what we read." "Where once the giants of Western thought - Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Milton, and Dante - had pride of place, university courses now boast authors such as Raymond Chandler, Alice Walker, and Louis L'Amour. Traditionalists argue that abandoning the "Great Books" spells doom for America's education system, a system that multiculturalists have called a white, elitist scam that fails to reflect America's multi-ethnic, non-European heritage." "Has the "opening" of the curriculum gone too far? Atlas's attempt to answer this question takes him to university classrooms across America, where the canon of "Great Books" is being dismantled in the name of political correctness, and into his own past, as he considers the influence of these books on his own life." "As ethnic groups reassert their identities and break from traditional assimilation, Atlas argues, America's need for common ground is greater than ever. Unless there is a set of core beliefs upon which to build consensus, there may soon be no clear idea of America, no common heritage, and no unified future." "Like The Closing of the American Mind and The Disuniting of America, Battle of the Books is a powerful, unsettling argument that calls attention to a looming crisis in American education."--Jacket.