At the age of 48, film critic David Denby decided to return to Columbia University and re-take the courses he took as a student in 1961: Literature, Humanities and Contemporary Civilization. He celebrates his rediscovery of authors such as Homer, Plato, Hegel, Austen, Marx, Nietzsche, and Virginia Woolf. He recreates the atmosphere of the classroom--the strategies used by a remarkable group of teachers and the strengths and weaknesses of media-age students as they grapple with these difficult, sometimes frightening works. All year long he watches the students grow and his own life and memories break out of hiding. 4 cassettes.