List Price: $19.99 Details

Save: $4.00 (20%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns

FREE delivery: Wednesday, Aug 25 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

In Stock.

$$15.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Wednesday, Aug 25 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by FranklinMedia

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share

Other Sellers on Amazon

$11.55
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: SharP.Books

$17.09
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Ambis Enterprises

$17.55
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Inspiration Media

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

Ross Gregory Douthat

Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class Paperback – March 1, 2006

by Ross Gregory Douthat (Author)

43 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$26.00

$15.99

$2.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.99

$11.55

$3.59

In the spirit of Scott Turow's One L and David Brooks's Bobos in Paradise, a penetrating critique of elite universities and the culture of privilege they perpetuate, written by a recent Harvard alumnus.

Part memoir, part social critique, Privilege is an absorbing assessment of one of the world's most celebrated universities: Harvard. In this sharp, insightful account, Douthat evaluates his social and academic education -- most notably, his frustrations with pre-established social hierarchies and the trumping of intellectual rigor by political correctness and personal ambition. The book addresses the spectacles of his time there, such as the embezzlement scandal at the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and Professor Cornel West's defection to Princeton. He also chronicles the more commonplace but equally revealing experiences, including social climbing, sexual relations, and job hunting.

While the book's narrative centers on Harvard, its main arguments have a much broader concern: the state of the American college experience. Privilege is a pointed reflection on students, parents, and even administrators and professors who perceive specific schools merely as stepping-stones to high salaries and elite social networks rather than as institutions entrusted with academic excellence.

A book full of insightful perceptions and illuminating detail, Privilege is sure to spark endless debates inside and outside the ivied walls.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 1, 2006
Grade level

8 and up
Reading age

13 years and up
Dimensions

6 x 0.76 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1401307558
ISBN-13

978-1401307554
See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Michael Lewis
8,855
Hardcover
in Epidemiology
56 offers from $13.65
Abigail Tucker
107
Hardcover
47 offers from $12.95
Walter Kirn
59
Hardcover
37 offers from $2.97
Ross Douthat
43
Hardcover
57 offers from $1.03
Jonathan Rauch
163
Hardcover
32 offers from $16.62
Ayad Akhtar
3,336
Paperback
39 offers from $8.49

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Ross Douthat
274
Hardcover
71 offers from $6.19
Ross Douthat
387
Paperback
99 offers from $1.42
Kevin Roose
377
Paperback
104 offers from $1.24
Ross Douthat
274
Paperback
35 offers from $11.59
Linda Waite
72
Paperback
73 offers from $1.46
Lauren Sandler
201
Paperback
83 offers from $2.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A withering indictment of Harvards institutional culture." -- Booklist (starred review)

"An affecting, revealing -- and piercing and withering -- portrait of Harvard by a young conservative. . ." -- Evan Thomas, author of Robert Kennedy and John Paul Jones

"Mr. Douthat writes beautifully, with a rare lyricism." -- Wall Street Journal

About the Author

While at Harvard, Ross Gregory Douthat wrote a biweekly column for the Harvard Crimson and edited the Harvard Salient. He now works at the Atlantic Monthly and lives in Washington, D.C.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hachette Books; 1st edition (March 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1401307558
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1401307554
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 8 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.76 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #913,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #106 in Teen & Young Adult College Guides
- #575 in College Guides (Books)
- #712 in Educator Biographies

Customer Reviews:
43 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		39%
4 star		28%
3 star		15%
2 star		14%
1 star		4%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Firefly

this book could have been SO much better. I wager that the author would have delivered ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

A mélange of thoughtful commentary and adolescent coming-of-age memories, this book could have been SO much better. I wager that the author would have delivered a more cogent and important assessment of Harvard College had he waited a few years. He must have started this book shortly after his own graduation…way too soon for perspective to have set in.

Instead, what we find here is a young graduate who rants against the injustices encountered in big, impersonal university, He expected more. Especially of Harvard.

His main targets are the school's misguided admissions and academic policies, the greedy, pretentious ambitions of his fellow undergrads in which the university appears to be a coconspirator, and the lack of academic guidance. The rest (student anxieties and cavortings) consumes way too much space. Moreover, they predominate in almost every undergraduate setting, I bet. (I suggest that the author might have been better served by transferring to one of the "smaller Ivies," like Amherst or Williams, where shepherding of undergraduates is probably more effective. In fact, a Quaker school like, say, Haverford or Swarthmore, might have filled the bill.)

After the reader has waded through all this, and considered the case made by Mr. Douthat that Harvard College needs to get its act together in a great many ways, the author takes it all back:… "don't get me wrong! I love Harvard." Good grief.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alan L. Chase

Review of

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2007

Verified Purchase

The timing of my reading this book was fortuitous. I finished the book within a few days of my very moving experience of being at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for the tribute to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[...]

That event, in my opinion, represented Harvard at its best. Ross Gregory Douthat's moving memoir of his four years as an undergraduate student at the Ivy League's flagship institution paints a more complex and ambivalent picture of the university. There can be no doubt that Douthat loves his alma mater, but it clearly has been a tempestuous affair. I view this book as a love letter written by Douthat to a paramour who has not always been faithful, but to whom the author will nevertheless remain in lifelong thrall, despite his keen awareness of her failings.

As I read this very balanced and insightful glimpse inside the kimono of Dame Harvard, I was reminded of Senator James Webb and of Winston Churchill! After he graduated from the United States Naval Academy, Jim Webb wrote "A Sense of Honor," a novel that was a thinly-veiled rendering of his four years as a midshipman - revealing the good, the bad and the ugly about life at Annapolis. The book was, in a phrase that Webb used in explaining to me his view of his controversial book, "A Valentine to a flawed lover."

Churchill, in a 1947 reflection on the post-war state of the world and of the institution of democracy, made this memorable quotation: "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Churchill's sardonic observation seems to capture perfectly Douthat's ultimate message: Harvard is the worst possible liberal arts environment - except for all the rest!

I found his writing style to be compelling and vividly descriptive. I almost felt as if he had mounted a literary Web cam on his shoulder and allowed me to see the nooks and crannies of Harvard through his eyes. He is unblinking in his self-criticism and self-observation. I felt his ambivalence when he was simultaneously repulsed by the notion of auditioning to join of the prestige "final clubs" and disappointed when he did not make the final cut. These anachronistic societies continue to exert a strong gravitational pull on what passes for social life on campus. His personal anecdotes of the dating scene among the students at Harvard were revealing and fascinating - the sexual revolution demythologized and deconstructed.

The saga of Winston, the homeless man who squatted in Douthat's dormitory for most of the school year, serves as a wonderful microcosm for taking a fresh look at the traditional "town vs. gown" tensions that are part of the fabric of most university towns. The juxtaposition of the disenfranchised camping out with the ruling class is rife with irony and pathos.

The author makes a strong case for the need for reform of the Harvard Core Curriculum and grading system. He points out with wonderful specificity the folly of focusing on arcane minutia within an academic discipline, while failing to give students a broad grounding in the basics of that discipline.

The struggle by students to help the university's custodial staff earn a living wage serves as a center of Douthat's consideration of the perennial tensions between the street liberals and the armchair liberals. As a conservative - a rare breed in the People's Republic of Cambridge - Douthat casts an outsider's bemused eye at his left-leaning compatriots and their internecine warfare.

As one who has walked most of Harvard's vast campus and who spends time with many friends who are Harvard alumni, I found this book to be a valuable read. I recommend enthusiastically. Douthat currently works as an editor at the Atlantic Monthly.

Enjoy!

Al

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

R P

Insightful and moving too

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2005

Verified Purchase

I read this book over the past weekend and it gets my absolute highest, six star recommendation. I am sure it will wind up as one of my favorite one or two books of the year. Don't think of it as some dry tome giving postmodernism a kick. It's not that. It's really a fun, current, personal and thoughtful college memoir with terrific writing. Think of it as the best Ivy League memoir since Prozac Nation (though actually, it's much better than Prozac Nation).

The book kind of has two aspects. First, the book is about the culture of the modern university. So it involves political dialogue on campus, academic standards, the ideology of postmodernism, the culture of irony, grade inflation and attitudes toward sex, diversity and political correctness. Douthat's discussion of these issues is always rooted in real situations with real people involved, so the discussions are not dry at all. This aspect of the book is a very interesting survey of the key issues on campus today. It is specifically about Harvard but the observations are applicable to almost any major US university.

Then there is a much more personal story about an individual, an outsider really, growing up in the social environment of the American elite in the 90's and 2000's, pre and immediately post 9/11, which yields a fabulous mix of privilege, competition, disappointment and elation, much of which is relatable to anyone who has been through that time of life and all of which is fascinating.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

klaudia

It was meant to be perfect life.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book gives a good inside into a life of Harvard students.

It shows how wealth matters and that some people want the elite education for others it's something their parents want them to have.
It's a must read if you plan on going to Harvard or any other elite universities.

See all reviews

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Buy new: $15.99 FREE delivery: Wednesday, Aug 25 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used: $8.29

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class Paperback – March 1, 2006

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Buy new:

$15.99

FREE delivery: Wednesday, Aug 25 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon.com

Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used:

$8.29