I rate it in terms of the category of books into which it falls: a set of essays, the original intention of which is for stand-alone publication and/or scholarly lecture. As such, one expects the connection among them to be more or less loose, rather than tightly knit, as...
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I rate it in terms of the category of books into which it falls: a set of essays, the original intention of which is for stand-alone publication and/or scholarly lecture. As such, one expects the connection among them to be more or less loose, rather than tightly knit, as in a book on a single topic.
First of all, I would commend the work to the general reader interested in finding these topics covered in a generally understandable fashion, rather than in the often arcane language of the Academy. He thinks clearly and has a talent for exposition of complex ideas in a form which can be grasped by the layman.
Second, of the topics covered, I find a number of discussions most interesting: science and its confrontation with the predominant religious approach characteristic of education from America's beginnings; the effort to combat fascism and, later, communism, with the concept of the practice of science as the democratic method of approach to social and political rule; the role of the previously excluded Jewish scholar in providing a major impetus toward secularization (not Jewish) orientation in learning and practice in education; Federal and Private foundation impact on the role of the scientific approach in Academe.
Brief though his coverage may be, it was quite gratifying that he recognizes some of the people who were significant to the development of a more secular outlook. Justice Holmes and his relationship to notable Jewish academics is an event worthy of note. The role of such men as Morris Raphael Cohen (on whom he has written a book), Robert K. Merton, Sidney Hook, and other notables, who may have been forgotten by some today, yet who did important work relevant to the topics considered.
By the same token, it is interesting to read about how the University of Michigan evolved into the major force it is today and, particularly, how it became a dominant center for some academic specialties, while in others it faded somewhat in competition with its peers. Particularly interesting was the discussion of how it handled the attack on a number of faculty during the McCarthy era (so-called). NYU, too, is given a chapter as an example of an urban university (Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, was a rather small city in the period discussed) which was forced by economic necessity to become quite a different place during and after the Depression than it wanted to be, and was, before that event.
On a more general level, those who know higher education today, as opposed to the era before The War (WW2), will be astonished (whether pleased or not at the occurrence) at the almost total absence of Jewish faculty in the more highly ranked colleges, particularly in the liberal arts and social science departments, and at the even lesser representation within the sphere of the lesser ranked or smaller ones.
To be clear, as I have indicated in the beginning of the review, this is not a treatise and does not deal with these or other topics in depth. Nonetheless, for the general reader who shares an interest with the author or for a more professional one, who wants a gloss on topics with which he/she may not be familiar, it is good reading and intellectually sound.
I rate it in terms of the category of books into which it falls: a set of essays, the original intention of which is for stand-alone publication and/or scholarly lecture. As such, one expects the connection among them to be more or less loose, rather than tightly knit, as in a book on a single topic.
First of all, I would commend the work to the general reader interested in finding these topics covered in a generally understandable fashion, rather than in the often arcane language of the Academy. He thinks clearly and has a talent for exposition of complex ideas in a form which can be grasped by the layman.
Second, of the topics covered, I find a number of discussions most interesting: science and its confrontation with the predominant religious approach characteristic of education from America's beginnings; the effort to combat fascism and, later, communism, with the concept of the practice of science as the democratic method of approach to social and political rule; the role of the previously excluded Jewish scholar in providing a major impetus toward secularization (not Jewish) orientation in learning and practice in education; Federal and Private foundation impact on the role of the scientific approach in Academe.
Brief though his coverage may be, it was quite gratifying that he recognizes some of the people who were significant to the development of a more secular outlook. Justice Holmes and his relationship to notable Jewish academics is an event worthy of note. The role of such men as Morris Raphael Cohen (on whom he has written a book), Robert K. Merton, Sidney Hook, and other notables, who may have been forgotten by some today, yet who did important work relevant to the topics considered.
By the same token, it is interesting to read about how the University of Michigan evolved into the major force it is today and, particularly, how it became a dominant center for some academic specialties, while in others it faded somewhat in competition with its peers. Particularly interesting was the discussion of how it handled the attack on a number of faculty during the McCarthy era (so-called). NYU, too, is given a chapter as an example of an urban university (Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, was a rather small city in the period discussed) which was forced by economic necessity to become quite a different place during and after the Depression than it wanted to be, and was, before that event.
On a more general level, those who know higher education today, as opposed to the era before The War (WW2), will be astonished (whether pleased or not at the occurrence) at the almost total absence of Jewish faculty in the more highly ranked colleges, particularly in the liberal arts and social science departments, and at the even lesser representation within the sphere of the lesser ranked or smaller ones.
To be clear, as I have indicated in the beginning of the review, this is not a treatise and does not deal with these or other topics in depth. Nonetheless, for the general reader who shares an interest with the author or for a more professional one, who wants a gloss on topics with which he/she may not be familiar, it is good reading and intellectually sound.
