Public Universities and the Public Sphere

by Smith, Woodruff D.

• ISBN13: 9780230108783
• ISBN10: 0230108784
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Public Universities and the Public Sphereargues that two crises facing America - a crisis of public discourse and a crisis of public higher education - are closely connected. The center of significant public discussion in the United States is located in a core public sphere consisting of publications, associations, and universities that was consciously constructed in the nineteenth century. The modern American university originated in the process that created the core public sphere. Public universities essentially democratized the core public sphere in the twentieth century. Part of the solution, Smith argues in this timely work, to both crises lies in understanding and building on the connection.

Author Biography

Woodruff D. Smith is Professor of History and formerly Dean of the Liberal Arts Faculty at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is the author of several books on German history, imperialism, and the history of the cultural sciences, and sis most recent book is Consumption and the Making of Respectability 1600-1800. Professor Smith is a recipient of the Democracy in Higher Education Prize of the National Education Association.

Table of Contents

The Core Public Sphere: What It Is and Why It Needs Help * Why Is Public Higher Education in Trouble? * Building the Core Public Sphere * The Public Sphere and the Construction of the Modern American University * Public Universities and the Democratization of the Core * Public Sphere * Occlusion and Its Consequences * What Should Be Done?