Description: This volume of specially commissioned original essays presents the thoughts of some of the most distinguished commentators within the American academy on the fundamental changes that have taken place in the humanities in the latter part of the twentieth century. What the essays make clear, is that as the humanities have become less significant in American higher education, they have also been the scene of unusually energetic social, pedagogical, and intellectual changes. The essays do not center on whether the changes described have been for good or bad, or on what remedial actions might be taken to halt the decay of interest in the humanities, but on the nature and extent of the changes. The authors have opinions, of course, but they have focused on areas - demographics, patronage, books - where it is possible, if not to be entirely objective, at least to be sufficiently factual to discuss the issues meaningfully.
Review Quotes: "The authors shrewdly analyze the dangers posed by new wave, post-modern scholarship. Though the reader may not agree with all their assessments, their arguments are powerfully and judiciously marshaled and laid out in succinct, lucid prose. . . . a highly eclectic volume, but a volume that should be read. . . by the reader interested in the intellectual, social and pedagogical changes sustained by the humanities in the closing years of this century."---Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times