Summary: Part A:A large cornerstone of the American Dream once included individuality, creative and critical thinking. Some of our nation’s brightest minds seem to be without a sense of purpose and adrift in life while they are still fresh out of school. Bill Deressiewicz especially noticed this while serving on the admissions committee at Yale. The same phenomena also greatly bothered him as a professor. His book, Excellent Sheep, provides solutions this problem and ways to receive a great education in the high-pressure factory like system that is American higher education.Part B:As a teenager, he volunteered to serve under General George Washington and from there became a hero of the American Revolution. The Marquis de Lafayette was a man driven by idealism and selfless righteous causes, or so history remembers him. Historian and author, Laura Auricchio, looks past these superficial notorieties to give a portrait of a man filled with complex humanity, emotion and dreams in her new biography.
