How did the humanities as a field of study develop and change since Antiquity? What should the chief goal of the humanities be? And what role do the classics play within the humanities? In this episode, I discuss these questions with Eric Adler, who is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Maryland. We will focus on his recent book The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today (Oxford University Press, 2020).