just mortimer adler. and it's fitting that adler, when he takes a degree of fame in the way that durant takes fame, adler was on the cover of "time" magazine, and the subheadline read, should professors commit suicide? this was in jest, i thing. adler was a professor, too. but only partly in jest. what adler was offering throughout his life was education minus the middle man. he did this by johnny appleseeding great book discussion groups in the united states. this is right after world war ii. we just defeated the nazis and the japanese and we have this new challenge with the cold war, and americans want to know what is it about our civilization that's worth defending. the great books provided them with that, and these discussion groups were at their peak. 50,000 americans meeting in high school gymnasium union halls, ymca, hairdressers and nurses and mechanics, meeting to discuss cervantes and shakes spears and the federalist. certainly it was a great thing. certainly adler was offering education, and th