- Hardcover: 217 pages
- Publisher: Beacon Press (Feb 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0807031224
- ISBN-13: 978-0807031223
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,619,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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7 reviews
54 of 56 people found the following review helpful
When it comes to looking at education, nothing maches it
4 Feb 2000
Format:Hardcover
This is the best book on the crisis in higher education ever written. What makes it so significant is that Aronowitz never underestimates the value of education, just as he convincingly demonstrates that few colleges are invested in actully cultivating the critical minds of students. Instead, he argues, that universities -- and he persuades us that he's talking about every university, from the community college to the ivy leagues -- are more interested in the payoff of advertizing to parents and prospective students that they are able to prepare people for their work lives. While this may sound important, once you read this book and understand that preparation for work amounts to little more than a very expensive vocational training course, you'll realize how shortchanged students are, and how society as a whole has lost the chance to actually prepare individuals for citizenship and engagement in the work of repairing society. In other words, universities have not lived up to the promise of helping to make the world a better place.
The crisis Aronowitz describes may seem reflective of an idealistic belief in the power of higher education, but even a cursory glance at the political and economic landscape shows the dearth of ideas in handling the multi-layer problems facing us as a country; it's hard to avoid the fact that the evident source of this problem is how we prepare people for life in the larger world. If preparation is merely an exercise in training clerks, accountants, and even professionals, then we have what we asked for: a country of clerks, accountants, doctors and lawyers, rather than a culture committed to democracy and one that values the involvement of every person -- regardless of their occupation -- in the democratic enterprise. Perhaps -- as Aronowitz proposes in his very clear last chapter, which includes a higher education curriculum of his own -- we prepared citizens instead of proficient employees, people could attach value to themselves and their potential for being part of their society in a way that isn't linked to their career or occupation.
Hats off to Aronowitz; he's written a book that should be read by every educator, every college administrator, and every person who counts himself as a citizen above all.
38 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Excellent, but also nothing new
16 Mar 2000
Format:Hardcover
Aronowitz has written an excellent book here, but the overall message is nothing new. Richard Hofstadter, in his early 1960s book, Anti-intellectualism in American Life (which won a Pulitzer Prize), demonstrated that American culture had been anti-intellectual since the early 19th century and perhaps earlier. Approximately one-fourth of that book was concerned with anti-intellectualism in U.S. education. In 1987, the liberal Russel Jacoby published The Last Intellectuals and the conservative Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind; Bloom's book also was essentially about anti-intellectual American culture, while Jacoby's was about anti-intellectual intellectuals, a group that largely overlaps with U.S. college professors. Most recently, Edward Said called attention to the dearth of public intellectuals in his Representation of the Intellectuals (including [American] colleges' responsibility for this situation), and Daniel Rigney, Leon Fink, Dane Claussen and others have written about anti-intellectualism and higher education, or (the lack of) public intellectuals and higher education.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Excellent!
15 Aug 2002
Format:Paperback
Like the previous reader, I've read both Hofstadter's "Anti-Intellecutalism..." and Jacoby's "Last Intellectuals". This work is just as enlightening as both of them.
Aronowitz sheds light on the suspicions of most anyone familiar with university life today (I'm a recent college graduate). He charts out how physics and engineering grew to dominate the university during the cold war and how corporates sponsorship largely took the place of military support in the post-Cold War era.
But what especially intrigued me was his background information on NYU and John Brademas' largely successful efforts to shake down wealthy donors and buy academic superstars. This transformed the reputation of the school. I'm going to graduate school at NYU in the fall, so I enjoyed hearing these details.
Aronowitz is unique among academics, given his working-class background and unorthodox method of attaining his degrees. These experiences are reflected in a passionate yet realistic prose. "The Knowledge Factory" is an engaging read that should be picked up by anyone affiliated with high education (students, teachers...especially administrators).
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