As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience, an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers, is in danger of becoming a thing of the past. In this work, the author offers a trenchant defense of such an...

"The untold story of the Harvard class of '63, whose Black students fought to create their own identities on the cusp between integration and affirmative action. In the fall of 1959, Harvard recruited eighteen "Negro" boys as an experiment, an early form of affirmative action. Four years later they would graduate as African Americans. Some fifty years later, one of these trailblazing Harvard grads, Kent Garrett, began to reconnect with his classmates...

"A groundbreaking manifesto for people searching for the kind of insight on leading, thinking, and living that elite schools should be--but aren't--providing"-- Deresiewicz takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with demands for perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications received by college admissions committees. Students are losing the ability to think independently. College is supposed to be a time for self-discovery--...

The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. While at a General Electric plant in early 2014, Obama remarked, "I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." These messages...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist presents a deeply researched look at the broken state of higher education in America and how to work towards a new model that works for all Americans.

"An exhilarating account of the lives and works of influential seventeenth- and eighteenth-century feminist philosophers Mary Astell, Damaris Masham, Catharine Cockburn, and Mary Wollstonecraft, and a searing look at the author's experience of patriarchy and sexism in academia. Growing up in small-town Iowa, Regan Penaluna daydreamed about the big questions. In college she fell in love with philosophy and chose to pursue it as an academician, the...

"Explaining the nuts and bolts of grammar presents a special challenge, because - far more than is the case with spelling and punctuation - the subject is burdened with a centuries-old history of educational practice that many will recall as anything but glamorous. One of the world's foremost authorities on the English language, Crystal sets out to rid grammar of its undeserved reputation as a dry and intimidating subject, pointing out how essential...

"If you're going to law school but have no idea what to expect, you're not alone. Law school can be overwhelming. You're learning a new way of thinking and doing an enormous amount of work, and maybe struggling to reach the same level of achievement you have in the past. On top of that, you're still finding your path in a new profession, learning its rules, expectations, and possibilities. The aim of this book is to help prepare you for the challenges...

Examining the complicated relationships between schools, religion, and human rights, Equality U is a feature-length documentary following a group of 33 young activists on the Soulforce Equality Ride, a first of its kind, two-month, cross-country tour to confront anti-gay discrimination policies at 19 conservative religious and military colleges. Against the backdrop of the Equality Ride, the film focuses on seven of the 'Equality Riders' and two courageous...