Un-Willing: An Inquiry into the Rise of Will's Power and an Attempt to Undo It

Un-Willing: An Inquiry into the Rise of Will's Power and an Attempt to Undo It BY EVA BRANN PAUL DRY, 367 PAGES, $35

You can catch a glimpse of Eva Brann as she walks-always with a playful smile-around the beautiful Annapolis campus of my alma mater, St. John's College. She has been a faculty member there for fifty-seven years, since the days when Jacob Klein and Leo Strauss walked its halls, and she has taught every class of its Great Books curriculum.

She translates ancient Greek texts and French poetry, and has taught mathematics, science, philosophy, politics, psychology, theology, literature, music, and more. She was the 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal and has published various books on the philosophy and poetry of the Greeks. And all this she has done with not the least bit of scholarly scrabble or academic self-importance.