The Higher Learning in America

Perhaps the pivotal book in the reform of higher education in the United States, Robert M. Hutchins' classic is once again available, with a brilliant personal and professional appreciation by Harry S. Ashmore. When it was published in 1936 The Higher Learning in America brought into focus the root causes of the controversies that still beset the nation's educational system. Hutchins began tenure as a university president by declaring that the learning available in even the most prestigious universities was grossly defi cient. The curricular reforms and administrative reorganization he undertook at Chicago are set forth in this volume, along with the philosophical arguments he worked out to explicate and defend his views.
Review
“Dr. Hutchins' pages are packed with the stuff of study and challenge and purpose. His book represents the swing of the pendulum away from the practical and material toward the intellectual, not only in education, but in the conception of the good life.”–New York Times
“Few men have said as much about any subject in a hundred pages as President Hutchins of the University of Chicago has said about education in this brief and brilliant book. Into four lectures he has packed not only a criticism of education in contemporary America but a description of education which he would put in its place if he had the power.”–Books --