In the company of scholars
Subtitle: the struggle for the soul of higher education
By: Julius Getman.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Austin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 294
Subjects: Education, Higher -- United States -- Philosophy; Education, Higher -- Political aspects -- United States; Education, Humanistic -- United States; Elite (Social sciences) -- United States; Universities and colleges -- United States -- Faculty
Description: "I began this book to articulate my sense of disappointment and alienation from the status I had fought so hard to achieve." A remarkable admission from an alumnus of Harvard Law School who has held tenured professorships in the law schools of Yale and Stanford and has taught in the law schools of Harvard and Chicago. In this personal reflection on the status of higher education, Julius Getman probes the tensions between status and meaning, elitism and egalitarianism, that challenge the academy and academics today. He shows how higher education creates a shared intellectual community among people of varied classes and races - while simultaneously dividing people on the basis of education and status. In the course of his explorations, Getman touches on many of the most current issues in higher education today, including the conflict between teaching and research, challenges to academic freedom, the struggle over multiculturalism, and the impact of minority and feminist activism. Getman presents these issues through relevant, often humorous anecdotes, using his own and others' experiences in coping with the constantly changing academic landscape. Written from a liberal perspective, the book offers another side of the story told in such recent works as Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind and Roger Kimball's Tenured Radicals. It will be important reading for everyone concerned with the future of higher education, as well as for anyone considering an academic career.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-289) and index.