Being the Cause is a labor of love and intellectual curiosity that has been more than 13 years in the making.  It is a critical textbook which means it is focused on self-awareness and reflection, and critiques of society and culture as a way to extract the essence of what we call the humanities.  Moving away from the classical methods of teaching the humanities, this text is designed to make the humanities more accessible to society at large and rediscover and reanimate the aspects of civic engagement by leveraging popular culture. It is a response to the moment in which we find ourselves struggling to understand or sustain our humanity, in the face of profound change and uncertainty.  Technology has augmented the ways we gather information, communicate, and learn and by extension, created space for the humanities to guide us through that wilderness.  This text was created with the understanding that the 21st century learner seeks more engagement and collaboration and yet, many still yearn for a linear way to receive and process the information. 

The goal of creating this book was to not only capture the interdisciplinary, which defines it, but to put the HUMAN back into the humanities.  One of the unique features of this book is that it is written in first person and the readers have an opportunity to build a relationship with the authors as they model the critical thinking process.  Furthermore, the authors provide space where they invite readers to agree, disagree, and contribute their own ideas to the conversation.