Trembling in the Ivory Tower
Kenneth Lasson: Trembling in the Ivory Tower; Bancroft Press; 2003; 196 pp. If one listens to spokesmen for the higher-education establishment, America’s colleges and universities are the envy of the world,…
Posts tagged with
“recommended reading”
Peering into the Crystal Ball
In recent years, there have been quite a few books on the ways in which innovation will change higher education. Richard DeMillo’s Abelard to Apple is, I think, the most intriguing one…
Three Cheers for Half a Book!
In my review of Higher Education? by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, I suggested that the similarities between the thinking of that book’s politically left authors and my own (libertarians are often but misleadingly…
Are We Stuck with the Politically Correct University?
Does “political correctness” predominate in American higher education? If so, is that a bad thing? And if it’s a bad thing, can anything be done about it? A new collection…
When the Academy Was Free
Alan Kors is a highly-regarded professor of history who has taught at the University of Pennsylvania for decades. Kors was the recipient of the Pope Center’s Caldwell Prize for academic…
Does Education Matter?
Does education matter? Alison Wolf addresses the question in her new book, “Does Education Matter: Myths about Education and Economic Growth.” The author, who holds the Sir Roy Griffiths professorship…
Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education
People usually wait until they have retired to write books that air a good deal of dirty laundry. Maybe it’s a mark in favor of tenure that a professor who…
Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk
Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk Edited by Richard H. Hersh and John Merrow Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 244 pages, $24.95 Books critical of higher education in America used to…
Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus
Independent Institute and Cambridge University Press, 2005, 279 pp., $28.99 American colleges and universities are hothouses of hypocrisy and the principal exhibit is the fact that while their spokesmen talk…
Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much
Richard Vedder: Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much; American Enterprise Institute; 2004; 232 pp.; $25 It is incontestably true the cost of going to college has been…