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The Degradation of the Academic Dogma: The University in America, 1945-1970reviewed by Robert McClintock - 1971 Title: The Degradation of the Academic Dogma: The University in America, 1945-1970 Author(s): Robert T. Nisbet Publisher: Basic Books, New York ISBN: , Pages: 252, Year: 1971 Search for book at Amazon.com Early in The Degradation of the Academic Dogma Robert
Nisbet makes a revealing aside about the degradation of literary
effort: "Older readers will perhaps remember the luster that once
attended the book, before that luster was extinguished in the flood
of publication during the past two or three decades, before books
became, like steel and automobiles, commodities" (p. 28).
Admittedly, I am a younger reader, except as the very, very young
would count; but all the same, to me the book, a real book, can
still have luster, if written with passion and care to make a
significant point. Alas, in this case, the passion has flagged, the
care has been compromised, and the point is significant but
perfunctory, manufactured from recollections primarily to observe
an academic occasion. Dross, not luster, attends this book, for it
is a commodity hurriedly produced to capture a share of the market
for tracts on the academic crisis.
To be sure, there is an academic crisis, and the position... (preview truncated at 150 words.)To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropriate membership. Please review your options below:
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- Robert McClintock
Teachers College, Columbia University E-mail Author
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