This collection of hard-hitting, highly readable essays reflects Gombrich's preoccupation with the central questions of value and tradition in our culture. Here he confronts some of the most urgent issues challenging today's students of art and civilization. His topics include some radical proposals for the reform of higher education, an attack on relativism and a plea for the conservation of our cities, alongside thought-provoking and engaging studies of the work of Oskar Kokoschka, Abram Games, Saul Steinberg and Henri Cartier-Bresson.