All learning, particularly higher learning, is premised on the notion that there is such a thing as truth and that it is eminently worth pursuing. All serious inquiries into the various branches of human knowledge have the discovery and dissemination of truth as their end goals. The humanities are no exception. In the last several decades,…

This article is an autobiographical account of a remarkable childhood. In this essay, David Steiner, the Klara & Larry Silverstein Dean of the School of Education at Hunter College in New York, chronicles his early years and his road to Oxford. David is the son of George Steiner, the polymath who has scathingly denounced Western societies for the…