Synopses & Reviews
In this fascinating book, Sperber uses original research culled from students, faculty, and administrators around the country, to argue that what universities offer instead of a meaningful undergraduate education is a meager and dangerous substitute: the party scene surrounding college sports that Sperber calls "beer and circus" and which serves to keep the students happy while tuition dollars keep rolling in. He explodes cherished myths about college sports, showing, for instance, that contrary to popular belief the money coming in to universities from sports programs never makes it to academic departments.
Sperber's profound re-evaluation of college sports and higher education comes straight out of today's headlines and opens our eyes to a generation of students deprived of the education they deserve.
Murray Sperber has been acknowledged for years as the country's leading authority on college sports and their role in American culture. In the wake of Indiana University's decision to fire head basketball coach Bobby Knight last year, Sperber was in constant demand across the country--on television, radio, and print media--to comment on the profound and tragic impact of big-time intercollegiate athletics on higher education.
Murray Sperber is a regular media commentator on college sports. A professor of English and American studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, his previous books include College Sports, Inc.; Onward to Victory: The Crises That Shaped College Sports; and Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football.
A full report on, and informed critique of, a severe, rapidly worsening crisis in today's academic life, Beer and Circus argues that meaningful education is being replaced by sports-related partying on college campuses across the country. Combining an understanding of American culture with research culled from students, faculty, and administrators nationwide, Sperber (professor of English and American studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, and author of several books on college sports) exposes several cherished myths about college sports.
He also shows how our "Big-time U." sports system is serving two vital aimskeeping students happy and keeping tuition figures highwith disastrous and perhaps irreversibly damaging results. Addressing such recent phenomena as binge drinking, national television sports coverage, corporate marketing and sponsorships, and the so-called "Flutie factor," Beer and Circus opens our eyes to a generation of students deprived of their education. This important work speaks as clearly and directly to students as it does to educators and policy-makers.
"Sperber now stands alone in his ability . . . to unravel and describe the forces that have given us the dismaying spectacle of big-time college sports . . . This is an important book that should worry anyone concerned with what is really wrong about American higher education."William Chace, president of Emory University
"Sperber now stands alone in his ability . . . to unravel and describe the forces that have given us the dismaying spectacle of big-time college sports . . . This is an important book that should worry anyone concerned with what is really wrong about American higher education."William Chace, president of Emory University
"It is difficult to read this book and not conclude that much of what passes for higher education in America today is actually academic fraud. Everyone should read this book, especially the thousands of college faculty who see no inherent conflict between revenue-producing sports and academic values."Allen L. Sack, former Notre Dame football player and co-author of College Athletes for Hire
"The case Beer and Circus marshalls against these places'schools' scarcely seems the right wordis overwhelming, a devastating condemnation of 'higher education' in America."Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
"Sperber's book [fosters] a sinking feeling about the future of American culture. He has managed to document one facet of our national decline in painstaking detail, and the result is an admirable, timely, and profoundly disturbing work."The New York Times Book Review
"Beer and Circus does a terrific job of illustrating how college sports has shielded the decline in education from public scrutiny . . . A powerful and important book."The Chicago Tribune
"America is coming to an awareness of the profound corruption in college sports and its unholy alliance with professional leagues. Future historians will trace this awareness to Murray Sperber's books."Allen Barra, The Wall Street Journal
Review
"It is hard to read Sperber's book without having a sinking feeling about the future of American culture. He has managed to document our national decline in painstaking detail, and the result is an admirable, timely and profoundly disturbing work."
--The New York Times Book Review
"The case [Sperber] marshalls against these places--'schools' scarcely seems the right word--is overwhelming, a devastating condemnation of 'higher education' in America."
-- Washington Post Book World
"'Beer and Circus' does a terrific job of illustrating how collegiate sports has shielded the decline in education from public scrutiny. . . .[I]t is a powerful and important book."--The Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Beer and Circus presents a no-holds-barred examination of the troubled relationship between college sports and higher education from a leading authority on the subject.
Murray Sperber turns common perceptions about big-time college athletics inside out. He shows, for instance, that contrary to popular belief the money coming in to universities from sports programs never makes it to academic departments and rarely even covers the expense of maintaining athletic programs. The bigger and more prominent the sports program, the more money it siphons away from academics.
Sperber chronicles the growth of the university system, the development of undergraduate subcultures, and the rising importance of sports. He reveals television's ever more blatant corporate sponsorship conflicts and describes a peculiar phenomenon he calls the Flutie Factor--the surge in enrollments that always follows a school's appearance on national television, a response that has little to do with academic concerns. Sperber's profound re-evaluation of college sports comes straight out of today's headlines and opens our eyes to a generation of students caught in a web of greed and corruption, deprived of the education they deserve.
Sperber presents a devastating critique, not only of higher education but of national culture and values.
Beer and Circus is a must-read for all students and parents, educators and policy makers.
Synopsis
In this fascinating book, Sperber uses original research culled from students, faculty, and administrators around the country, to argue that what universities offer instead of a meaningful undergraduate education is a meager and dangerous substitute: the party scene surrounding college sports that Sperber calls "beer and circus" and which serves to keep the students happy while tuition dollars keep rolling in. He explodes cherished myths about college sports, showing, for instance, that contrary to popular belief the money coming in to universities from sports programs never makes it to academic departments.
Sperber's profound re-evaluation of college sports and higher education comes straight out of today's headlines and opens our eyes to a generation of students deprived of the education they deserve.
Murray Sperber has been acknowledged for years as the country's leading authority on college sports and their role in American culture. In the wake of Indiana University's decision to fire head basketball coach Bobby Knight last year, Sperber was in constant demand across the country--on television, radio, and print media--to comment on the profound and tragic impact of big-time intercollegiate athletics on higher education.
About the Author
Murray Sperber is a regular media commentator on college sports. A professor of English and American studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, his previous books include
College Sports, Inc.;
Onward to Victory: The Crises That Shaped College Sports; and
Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football.