How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education

How to Think like Shakespeare is a guide to essential mental habits that can enhance thinking, writing, and learning. It challenges current educational notions and emphasizes the importance of mental play, creativity, imitation, autonomy, tradition, innovation, and discipline. Written in a friendly and conversational tone, the book offers insights and exercises to stretch the mind and hone words.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 31 August 2021
Publisher: Princeton University Press

How to Think like Shakespeare is a captivating guide that delves into essential mental habits that can enhance our thinking, writing, and learning experiences. Authored by Scott Newstok, this book offers a refreshing perspective on the craft of thought and highlights the gaps in modern education. Through fourteen concise chapters, Newstok draws inspiration from Shakespeare's world and works, as well as from other writers across different eras. He distills enduring practices that can make learning more creative and pleasurable.

Challenging prevalent notions about education, Newstok demonstrates how mental play emerges through work, creativity through imitation, autonomy through tradition, innovation through constraint, and freedom through discipline. He argues that these practices, rather than an obsession with assessment, nurtured a mind like Shakespeare's. While it may be unrealistic to aspire to the same level of genius as the Bard, we can still learn from the exercises that shaped his intellectual growth.

Written in a friendly and conversational tone, How to Think like Shakespeare is filled with insightful anecdotes and practical exercises that will engage readers on every page. It serves as a revival of timeless methods for stretching our minds and honing our words, making it relevant and valuable for individuals at all stages of life. By embracing these practices, we can enhance our cognitive abilities, improve our communication skills, and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the world around us.

Weight: 202g
Dimension: 236 x 557 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691227696