at least we’d never have to see another of Barack Obama’s summer reading lists again.

A somewhat extreme proposal to overcome a mild irritation.

“Menand’s condescending takedown of Montas’s passionate and deeply personal defense of liberal learning,

To a lay person, Menand’s New Yorker article reads like anything but condescending, or even a takedown. If anything, it reads more humble and accepting of more learning traditions than the books it is critiquing.