Renaissance humanism, with its emphasis on freedom, human dignity, virtue, progress, and education, permeated all aspects of European life and gave birth to the culture of modern Europe. Articulating an interlocking set of ideals and writing during a period of crisis arising from wars, plague, famine, and religious conflict, humanists such as Petrarch, Erasmus, Marsiglio Ficino, Thomas More, and Lorenzo Valla rejected arid medieval scholasticism and created an educational system for the new world of the emergent social world. The course will examine the lives, thoughts, and ideals of key humanists and show how the humanist tradition formed the basis of European education through at least the mid-twentieth century. Finally, we will briefly discuss the contemporary "wars" over the humanities and the usefulness of the humanities in educating people for life.