Description
Book SynopsisUniversities have historically been integral to democracy. What can they do to reclaim this critical role?Universities play an indispensable role within modern democracies. But this role is often overlooked or too narrowly conceived, even by universities themselves. In What Universities Owe Democracy, Ronald J. Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University, argues thatat a moment when liberal democracy is endangered and more countries are heading toward autocracy than at any time in generationsit is critical for today's colleges and universities to reestablish their place in democracy. Drawing upon fields as varied as political science, economics, history, and sociology, Daniels identifies four distinct functions of American higher education that are key to liberal democracy: social mobility, citizenship education, the stewardship of facts, and the cultivation of pluralistic, diverse communities. By examining these roles over time, Daniels explains where colleges and universities
Trade ReviewThis is an exceptionally important, insistently reasonable, delightfully readable book.
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The New York TimesAnyone concerned with higher education's role in the public good, especially researchers and practitioners, will find [
What Universities Owe Democracy] well worth the read.
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Higher EducationWhen the president of a major university publishes a deeply researched, closely reasoned, strongly argued powerful idea and call to the profession to respond to an urgent crisis in our national history, it is highly likely to become a classic in the literature of higher education. Ronald Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University (co-authoring with colleagues Grant Shreve and Phillip Spector), has accomplished that with this new book.
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New England Journal of Higher Education[A] forceful argument for universities as change-makers. Daniels wants the American university and its graduates to find more ways to challenge power.
—Simona Chiose, University of Toronto,
Globe and MailDaniels makes an important contribution to not one but two urgent and topical subjects: the weakening of American self-governance and the overall role of higher education in countering that dangerous trend. One hopes that Daniels's sterling academic reputation, and that of his institution, leads to a wide readership.
—Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University,
Washington PostRonald J. Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University, makes a compelling case that American universities are failing to meet their civic duty.
—Richard Haass,
Project SyndicateDaniels recognizes that the public's willingness to support higher education's democratic mission depends on universities reengaging with the nation-state....Daniels's wager is that the end is not inevitable, that universities can reassert their centrality to the American liberal democratic project. I hope he's right.
—Johann Neem,
Public BooksThe fraying of democracy around the world that is the key premise of Ronald J. Daniels's important book,
What Universities Owe Democracy....Daniels's book does two things that are desperately needed and that make it important reading for anyone working in or adjacent to higher education. First, it shows us how to contextualize the work we do in universities—and libraries, and as researchers and publishers....Second, it offers some direction of travel and an agenda in a moment when both feel urgently needed and in short supply.
—Karin Wulf,
The Scholarly Kitchen[Daniels] offers concrete, actionable and reasonable ideas for how universities can support liberal democratic values and goals. Students of the evolution of the university will learn much from reading this book....Compelling.
—Joshua Kim,
Inside Higher EdTable of ContentsPreface
Introduction
1. American Dreams: Access, Mobility, Fairness
2. Free Minds: Educating Democratic Citizens
3. Hard Facts: Knowledge Creation and Checking Power
4. Purposeful Pluralism: Dialogue across Difference on Campus
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
