12 M +
0

Zachary Karabell
Basic Books

What's College For?: The Struggle to Define American Higher Education

Rate this book Arrow Icon

Key Metrics

AuthorZachary Karabell
PublisherBasic Books
PublishedJun 24 2019
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139780465091522
Dimensions8 X 5.32 X 0.84 inches
Weight 0.7 pounds
BISAC
CategoriesEducation > Higher
LanguageEnglish

List Price:

Save:

$0 ($%)

Format:

Paperback

Shipping

Ships from:

Estimated Arrival:

Nov 25 -Nov 27

Available Copies:

10+ Copies

Ready To Buy:

Add to Cart

Secure Transaction

Sold By:

Readara.com

Add to My Wishlist

I want 10 - 1,000 copies

Book Description

President Clinton declares that a two-year education should be the right of all Americans. Congress passes a 40 billion package of tax breaks and scholarships aimed at making a degree accessible to everyone. Almost two-thirds of high school graduates now go on to some form of higher education, and yet at the same time, those colleges and universities, inundated with a new kind of student, have been slow to respond to this revolutionary change.Zachary Karabell spent over a year traveling the country interviewing students, graduate students, faculty, and adjunct teachers, and the result is a portrait of American higher education that is neither conservative nor liberal and that needs to be taken seriously. There is a quiet revolution occurring that will--that is--changing the nature of education in this country.Higher education is becoming mass education, writes Karabell. The crucial clash on today's campuses is not between traditionalists, multiculturalists, and tenured radicals, but between the competing needs and desires of students, professors, administrators, and the larger society.The overwhelming majority of today's students are working-class people seeking education to get a job; they are not seeking a liberal education, nor planning to go on to graduate school. Most faculty members, products of the elite graduate schools that have insulated them from the needs of real-world people, are often profoundly ill-equipped to handle this changing student body. By exploring the myriad perspectives of these conflicting expectations Karabell concludes that a radical democratization of higher education is not only inevitable, it is desirable, and it will require dramatic changes in the structure and presumptions about education beyond the high school level.Topping 175 billion a year, spending for American higher education will join health care and welfare as one of the top national issues, yet there is precious little real or broad-based understanding of the issues and social forces at work. Eschewing any political agenda, yet unafraid to ask as many questions as he answers, Zachary Karabell has provided the first reasoned examination of what has become a national concern. Sure to spark intense debate, What's College For? is a clarion call for reform.

Author Bio

Zachary Karabell is an author and columnist, the founder of the Progress Network at New America, and president of River Twice Research and River Twice Capital. Previously, he was Head of Global Strategies at Envestnet, a publicly traded financial services firm. Prior to that, he was President of Fred Alger & Company. In addition, he ran the River Twice Fund from 2011-2013, an alternative fund that focused on sustainability.

Educated at Columbia, Oxford and Harvard, where he received his Ph.D., Karabell has written widely on history, economics and international relations. His most recent book was The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World, and his next book, Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power will be published by Penguin Press in early 2021.

He is the author of eleven previous books, including The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election (which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award for best non-fiction book of the year in 2000); Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World’s Prosperity Depends On It (Simon & Schuster, 2009); and Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in the 21st Century, co-authored with Aron Cramer (Rodale 2010). He also sits on the board of New America and PEN America. In 2003, the World Economic Forum designated him a "Global Leader for Tomorrow."

As a commentator, Karabell is a Contributing Editor for Wired and for Politico, and the host of the podcast “What Could Go Right?” Previously he wrote “The Edgy Optimist” column for Slate, Reuters, and The Atlantic. He is a LinkedIn Influencer, and a commentator on CNBC, Fox Business and MSNBC.

He also contributes to such publications as The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs.

Source: zacharykarabell.com

Videos

No Videos

Community reviews

Write a Review

No Community reviews