Book Reviews
University practices, innovations, and controversies make for great books. The following articles explore the latest in book-length higher-ed commentary, identifying what’s worth reading, what isn’t, and everything in between.
How Strong Is the Ivy League Curriculum?
We hear over and over that the eight universities comprising the Ivy League are elite institutions. They train our future leaders and do so much to advance knowledge. That’s what…
The Diversity Game Is a Gigantic Con
In his famous story “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Hans Christian Andersen imagines a situation where everyone fears to speak the truth about an obvious falsehood, namely that the emperor’s supposedly…
Why Does American Higher Education Work So Poorly?
After enjoying many decades of high public support, higher education in the U.S. is in serious decline. Polls show that a sizeable percentage of the populace now doubts that college…
Universities’ Stalinesque Procedures Are Silencing Unpopular Professors
At one time, most Americans (and virtually all academics) would have agreed with the famous saying, often attributed to Voltaire, “While I disagree with what you say, I will defend…
Yes, the College Bubble Will Deflate
For the entire existence of the James G. Martin Center, we have been arguing that, due to governmental policies, higher education has been badly oversold. That is, many students have…
Bad Legal Education Puts America in Jeopardy
It is worrisome that “progressive” activism has managed to infiltrate so much of American higher education, but wildly politicized sociology and English departments can do us only marginal damage. Few…
Is Standardized Testing Good or Bad?
Should colleges and universities—especially those regarded as elite—use the scores students earned on standardized tests in making admissions decisions? That has been a heated subject of debate for several decades.…
Is Higher Education Inevitably Stuck in the Past?
A common refrain among observers of American higher education is that it changes at a glacial pace—if even that fast. The structure of our colleges and universities serves largely to…
How Academic Elites Are Undoing Centuries of Progress
Professor John Ellis has been a critic of our higher-education system for many years. His book The Breakdown of Higher Education (which I reviewed here) masterfully analyzed the perverse trends…
The Clash Between Academic Freedom and Antisemitism
Academics who cherish free speech have been pushed into a corner by the rapid rise of anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric and action on our campuses. The concept of free speech…