The publisher may have chosen to change the name of Harry Mount's book from "Amo, Amas, Amat...and All That" to "Carpe Diem" because of the similarity to the title of a book published in 2005, written by Eugene Ehrlich, "Amo, Amas, Amat and More." BTW: My public high school in Oregon offered Latin, so it's not just for expensive private schools or Catholic schools; we also had a yearly Latin conference with other public high schools in the state. One good reason to take Latin is to prepare for advanced education in medicine or other sciences, which use a lot of Latin-based terminology.

Ah yes..The memory of my high school Latin class. Miss Dente and Sr. Michael Joseph were my teachers. My mother's mantra used to be.."You'll be SO glad you took Latin!!"...eeks. Agricula, agriculae, agricilorum???? How'my doin'? Hardly an intellectual am I !! BUT my mother was RIGHT. I am so glad I took Latin 1 & 2 at St. Luke's High School, Ho-H0-Kus, New Jersey. I had no idea how beneficial it would be throughout my life...you know,..those prefexes and suffixes that somehow help you determine the meaning of a word. But THAT was the easy part. I often wondered what kind of a brain a person must have to be able to not only UNDERSTAND, but TEACH the language. I found it hard to imagine that a WHOLE society of people really spoke to each other EVERY DAY, in LATIN. Even today, sporting the same thought, I now think they were all 'fakin' it. No Latin Club for me, no togas either, maybe just for Halloween!!! I used to wonder if all those kids walking around so dressed, REALLY like Latin? Somehow NOW, I think NOT. Bet some had an intellectual 'air' as they donned their white robes and became so obviously present as they mingled among the 'lessers' in the hallowed halls. But others were probably interested and intrigued by the HISTORY of the Roman Empire, Greek civilization and the like. While in high school we maintained that "Latin is a language, as dead as dead can be. First it killed the Romans, now it's killing me," but the truth is very different. For a DEAD language it is very much ALIVE because it has truly NEVER died. I do not have a desire to speak Latin fluently..but...the smattering of two years of high school Latin, has for me, opened up a very lively interest in the HISTORY from which it is derived. FASCINATING.

A "summa cum laude" to you for understanding the reports of Latin's death have been greatly exaggerated. LATIN is the mother tongue of English, contributing about 65% of all English words, and 90% of those over two syllabes. Moreover, LATIN is the basis of 75-85% of all Spanish(my 3rd fluent language after English and Latin)French, Italian, Portugese, and Romanian words. Knowledge of LATIN and GREEK prefixes-root-suffixes provides useful keys to building vocabularies in ENGLISH. A background in LATIN is an asset for careers that demand literary and/or a technical vocabulary, especially useful professions such as LAW/MEDICINE. There is an excellent site for the use of LATIN terminology in professional and intellectual fields you may find interesting and supports your view that LATIN is not DEAD and is very much ALIVE IN OUR DAILY LIVES. <link>

I studied LATIN for 4 years at Power Memorial Academy, NYC,(1950-54) I earned my BA in Economics with a co-major in Thomasic Philosophy(official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church) from Iona College, New Rochelle, NY(1954-58) both were male only institutions at the time; taught by the Irish Christian Brothers. I loved reading the original works of both approved /banned scholars in LATIN.

Before WWII you had to be fluent in LATIN inorder to earn a UNIVERSITY DOCTORATE.