At the moment of his greatest professional success, vetteran newspaperman & author of this book was struck by a crippling depression. Neither psychotherapy nor Prozac helped him, & it wasn't until he began a painful probe of his life & an investigation into depression's larger issues that he saw a way out. Not a depression memoir, Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy uses the author's personal experience to launch a profound & inspiring exploration of the depression epidemic in our society. Weaving literature, philosophy, economics, religion, & medicine into a discussion about the roots of our barren culture, the author comes to provocative conclusions. He shows how the nature of our society is often as much to blame for depression as brain chemistry is, how depression can be a positive goad to creativity & deeper self-understanding, & why religious belief & community involvement are often more potent therapies than drugs & the analyst's couch. This is a deeply helpful & illuminating book for all who are looking for meaning in their lives

After an impressive career in journalism, David S. Awbrey became a middle-school social studies teacher in Springfield, Missouri, a typical American community that he uses as a compelling case study to explore many of the social and academic problems facing education nationwide. A Journalist's Education in the Classroom is an insightful, poignant and often humorous account of his experiences teaching medieval and Renaissance history. What Awbrey found in the classroom should alarm all Americans: students obsessed with popular culture and disengaged from academics, teachers intellectually unprepared for the 21st-century global society, and an educational establishment focused more on protecting its own power than on ensuring that the next generation possesses the scholastic skills necessary to advance American democracy and prosperity. But Awbrey offers hope. Citing historical precedents, including Charlemagne's lifting Europe out of the ignorance of post-Roman Empire barbarism and the 15th-century Italian Renaissance, he examines how the rediscovery of classical learning preserved Western civilization and persuasively argues that America's future hinges on a similar restoration of the liberal arts to primacy in the nation's schools.