Routledge Higher Education Under Fire: Politics, Economics, and the Crisis of the Humanities

The contributors to this collection explore why--and how--higher education in America under attack. Review "[This book] makes a useful addition to debates on post-secondary education in the U.S. because it takes on a wide range of issues and includes discussions among speakers representing different points of view...Unlike popular Manichaean attacks on academia, Higher Education Under Fire offers a complex, nuanced diagnosis of the threats and opportunities confronting a vital but troubled American institution." -- Booklist "This is a book that should be read carefully by anyone who cares about the future of higher education. It investigates the tensions between democratization and elitism in our concept of higher education and asks whether we will ever fully support the goal to which we often give lip service--a high-quality education open to all qualified persons. No mere rehashing of the PC debates, Higher Education Under Fire connects differences over the curriculum to the current crisis in funding and thus helps us understand why it is actually difficult, in many places, for teachers to teach and students to learn. The authors represent a wide range of political positions, and one of the book's most distinguished virtues is its commitment to civil debate among people who differ--a hopeful sign in an area too frequently dominated by self righteous slogan-mongering." -- Martha Nussbaum, Brown University "It is a book that teachers ought to read if they have any interest in what is hyped as The Crisis in The Humanities." -- Chronique "In the rash of recent books on higher education, none offers such a combination of economic and political analysis, or such a comprehensive sense of the challenges that face teachers and scholars in the humanities at the close of the twentieth century [as Higher Education Under Fire]." -- Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society "This is the first collection devoted to higher education in our era that has dared to be comprehensive, controversial, and indisputably clear about the crisis of knowledge facing our nation. Its topics range from federal policy to 'identity politics,' from controversies over Composition 101 to feeding frenzies in the national press. Along with the remarkable recorded exchanges included in the book, the essays and the editors' introduction open a window on our culture that is profoundly enlightening. For anyone who has asked what higher education has been doing over the past twenty-five years, this collection will be a useful answer. No book has registered the recent work of the academy with so much energy and engaged intelligence." -- Houston A. Baker, Jr., University of Pennsylvania "Unlike popular Manichaean attacks on academia, Higher Education Under Fire offers a complex, nuanced diagnosis of the threats and opportunities confronting a vital but troubled American institution." -- Booklist ". . . analyzes the combined effects of the ideological and economic hits the academy has taken in the nineties." About the Author Michael Bérubé and Cary Nelson both teach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Michael Bérubé's most recent books include Public Access: Literary Theory and American Cultural Politics (Verso). For Routledge, Cary Nelson has co-edited Cultural Studies.