"In his attempt to revivify the discourse in support of liberal education, Harpham, in effect, expands the script, making the American system of general education out to be an aid to democracy that is deeply grounded in American culture. . . it is still easy to imagine his historical argument finding its way into the speeches of university presidents in the US."

New York Review of Books

"Compelling and essential reading for anyone concerned with the relationship between humanistic activity and American democracy. It is a virtuoso demonstration of what can be accomplished when an erudite scholar seeks to place the humanities on ‘native ground’ (to borrow a phrase from Alfred Kazin). But I think the book should be seen, above all, as a provocation, an invitation to the kind of interpretive debate it centrally defends.”

Los Angeles Review of Books

“In this vitally important and timely new book, the celebrated critic Geoffrey Harpham recovers the promise of the humanities in American higher education. He shows how interpreting texts has long been inseparable from democratic aspirations, and why English became the central humanistic discipline, the site of these aspirations, in the United States.  Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written, What Do You Think, Mr. Ramirez makes a powerful case for reviving a model of general education centered in the humanities.”

John Stauffer, Harvard University

“The humanities in an American key, Harpham argues in this deft and incisive book, are fundamentally interpretive arts that form not just readers but citizens. And so, he concludes, the humanities are deeply democratic arts that help shape a society committed to argument, persuasion, and the idea that every citizen can and should contribute to the endless conversation that is American democracy. Harpham’s story is also a timely caution that in the United States the health of democracy has long been tied to the fate of the humanities.”

Chad Wellmon, University of Virginia