I was revisiting the online novel Victoria I link to in this post.  A paragraph in Victoria, says "And I can give you a small present that will get you started.” He handed me a copy of a book: Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe. “Another Darmouth professor, Jeffery Hart, wrote this a few years ago.  I found this, and watched this C-SPAN video I think you would like it also. Jeffrey Hart talked about his book, Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education, published by Yale University Press. The book is a guide to the literary works of Western civilization as a map of the main currents of Western culture.