Synopses & Reviews
America's university president extraordinaire adds a new chapter and preface to
The Uses of the University, probably the most important book on the modern university ever written. This summa on higher education brings the research university into the new century.
The multiversity that Clark Kerr so presciently discovered now finds itself in an age of apprehension with few certainties. Leaders of institutions of higher learning can be either hedgehogs or foxes in the new age. Kerr gives five general points of advice on what kinds of attitudes universities should adopt. He then gives a blueprint for action for foxes, suggesting that a few hedgehogs need to be around to protect university autonomy and the public weal.
Review
The Uses of the University has been the single most influential book on the American research university. Kerr, who was president of the University of California, Berkeley, during the tumult of the Free Speech Movement, gave three lectures at Harvard in 1963 defining the role of the emerging "multiversity." New layers were added to the text in 1972, 1982, and again in 1994; all are included in this edition. John Wilson
Review
No book ever written has provided such a penetrating description of the modern research university or offered such insightful comments on its special tensions and problems. Anyone wishing to understand the American research university--past, present, and future--must begin with a careful reading of this book. Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University
Review
Still the finest introduction available to one of America's most remarkable and least understood inventions: the research university. Probably the most learned, witty, and indiscrete book ever written by a university president, yet still wise in a way that stands the test of time. Christopher Jencks, Northwestern University
Review
An updated classic written by one of the legendary figures in American higher education. Each new edition has contained important and accurate predictions. The fourth edition will be no exception. Henry Rosovsky, Harvard University
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-252) and index.
About the Author
Clark Kerr was President Emeritus and former Chancellor and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the former Chair of the Carnegie Commission (and later Council) on Higher Education, and the former Chair and Director of the National Commission on Strengthening Presidential Leadership under the auspices of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
Table of Contents
- Preface, 2001: A New Century for Higher Education
- Preface, 1963
- 1. The Idea of a Multiversity
- 2. The Realities of the Federal Grant University
- 3. The Future of the City of Intellect
- 4. Reconsiderations after the Revolts of the 1960s
- 5. Attempted Reforms That Failed
- 6. Commentaries on the Golden Age of the Research University
- 7. A New Age? From Increasing Federal Riches to Increasing State Poverty
- 8. Hard Choices
- 9. The “City of Intellect” in a Century for the Foxes?
- Notes
- Index