{"product_id":"the-amateur-hour-9781421439099","title":"The Amateur Hour","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first full-length history of college teaching in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present, this book sheds new light on the ongoing tension between the modern scholarly idealscientific, objective, and dispassionateand the inevitably subjective nature of day-to-day instruction.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmerican college teaching is in crisis, or so we are told. But we''ve heard that complaint for the past 150 years, as critics have denounced the poor quality of instruction in undergraduate classrooms. Students daydream in gigantic lecture halls while a professor drones on, or they meet with a teaching assistant for an hour of aimless discussion. The modern university does not reward teaching, so faculty members at every level neglect it in favor of research and publication. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the first book-length history of American college teaching, Jonathan Zimmerman confirms but also contradicts these perennial complaints. Drawing upon a wide range of previously unexamined sour\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his provocative new book, \u003ci\u003eThe Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America\u003c\/i\u003e, historian Jonathan Zimmerman chronicles more than 200 years of the quality of instruction in higher education. It's a history filled with noble but failed efforts to improve and reform college teaching, marked by student-led protests and solitary campaigns led by individual professors or administrators.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Association of College and University Educators\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis story is not for pollyannas, but rather for those who relish absurdity, black humor, irony, and, I fear, dashed dreams and heartbreak.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eInside Higher Ed\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Amateur Hour\u003c\/i\u003e is the book to read now as we ponder our post-COVID higher education future.\u003cbr\u003e—Joshua Kim\u003cbr\u003eZimmerman excels in discussing the stories of great lecturers and efforts for reform.\u003cbr\u003e—Daniel A. Clark, Indiana State University, \u003ci\u003eHistory of Education Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a great book and a worthy read for those interested in college teaching.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookmarked Reads\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface \u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction. Personality over Bureaucracy: The Paradox of College Teaching in America\u003cbr\u003eChapter One. Between the Two Ends of the Log: Teaching and Learning in the Nineteenth Century\u003cbr\u003eChapter Two. Scholarship and Its Discontents: Teaching and Learning in the Progressive Era\u003cbr\u003eChapter Three. The Curse of Gigantism: Mass-Produced Education and Its Critics in Interwar America\u003cbr\u003eChapter Four. \"Teaching Made Personal\": Reform and Its Limits in Interwar College Teaching\u003cbr\u003eChapter Five. Expansion and Repression: Cold War Challenges for College Teaching\u003cbr\u003eChapter Six. TV or Not TV? Reforming Cold War College Teaching\u003cbr\u003eChapter Seven. The University under Attack: College Teaching in the 1960s and 1970s\u003cbr\u003eChapter Eight. Experimentation and Improvement: Reforming Teaching in the 1960s and 1970s\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue. The Decade of the Undergraduate? College Teaching in the 1990s and Beyond\u003cbr\u003eAppendix. Archives of College Teaching\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408139821399,"sku":"9781421439099","price":27.45,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781421439099.jpg?v=1730501731","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-amateur-hour-9781421439099","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}