Collected here by University of Chicago professor Bloom (author of the controversial bestseller Closing of the American Mind ) are 19 impressive, previously published essays. Scholarly but accessible to serious, determined general readers are 11 commentaries on Aristophanes, Plato, Rousseau, Swift and Shakespeare, and three on teachers--the influential political theorist Leo Strauss; Raymond Aron, ``the last of the liberals''; and Alexandre Kojeve, ``the most brilliant man I ever met.'' The last five essays are on commerce and ``culture'': Machiavelli and the study of texts, John Rawls's theory of justice, the crisis of liberal education and the democratization of the university. The collection is a notable demonstration of the breadth of Bloom's learning.