The strengths and failures of the American college, and why liberal
education still matters
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 College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a
trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a
privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In describing what a true
college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to
as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic
promise.
In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the
idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of
the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth
century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the
twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and
students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of
America's colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing
the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects
in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic
education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual,
and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers
what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable
institutions for future generations.
In a new afterword, Delbanco responds to recent developments--both
ominous and promising--in the changing landscape of higher education.