# Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child - Hardcover

by **Anthony Esolen** (Author)

**Welcome to Life Under Compulsion**

How do you raise a child who can sit with a good book and read? Who is moved by beauty? Who doesn't have to buy the latest this or that vanity? Who is not bound to the instant urge, wherever it may be found?

As a parent, you've probably asked these questions. And now Anthony Esolen provides the answers in this wise new book, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed _Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child_.

Although _freedom_ has become a byword of our age, Esolen reveals that our children are anything but free. In fact, they are becoming slaves to compulsions. Some compulsions come _from without_: government mandates that determine what children are taught, how they are taught, and even what they can eat in school. Others come _from within_: the itches that must be scratched, the passions by which children (like the rest of us) can be mastered.

Common Core, smartphones, video games, sex ed, travel teams, Twitter, politicians, popular music, advertising, a world with more genders than there are flavors of ice cream--these and many other aspects of contemporary life come under Esolen's sweeping gaze in _Life Under Compulsion_.

This elegantly written book restores lost wisdom about education, parenting, literature, music, art, philosophy, and leisure. Esolen shows why the common understanding of freedom--as a permission slip to do as you please--is narrow, misleading . . . and dangerous. He draws on great thinkers of the Western tradition, from Aristotle and Cicero to Dante and Shakespeare to John Adams and C. S. Lewis, to remind us what human freedom _truly_ means.

_Life Under Compulsion_ also restates the importance of concepts so often dismissed today: truth, beauty, goodness, love, faith, and virtue. But above all else, it reminds us of a fundamental truth: that a child is a _human being_.

Countercultural in the best sense of the term, _Life Under Compulsion_ is an indispensable guide for any parent who wants to help a child remove the shackles and enjoy a truly free, and full, life.

### Author Biography

**Anthony Esolen** is the author of several books, including _Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child_, _The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization_, and _Ironies of Faith_. He is also the translator and editor of the celebrated three-volume Modern Library edition of Dante's _Divine Comedy_. A professor of English at Providence College and a senior editor of _Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity_, Esolen lives in Rhode Island with his family.

**Number of Pages:** 224

**Dimensions:** 0.9 x 9.2 x 6.2 IN

**Publication Date:** May 18, 2015

## Details

- **Price:** 27.95 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 27.95 USD | In stock |

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- Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child - Hardcover

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