Higher education is arguably America's most valuable and durable product in the global economy, yet it is constantly subject to criticism. The contributors to this book examine why - and how - this is happening, from a wide variety of perspectives.

Preface -- Introduction: A Report From the Front /Cary Nelson and Michael Berube -- I PROFESSORS AND POLITICS -- Going Public: Political Discourse and the Faculty Voice /Linda Ray Pratt -- A Faculty Response to the Fiscal Crisis: From Defense to Offense /Ernst Benjamin -- “Political Correctness” and the Attack on American Colleges /Paul Lauter -- Cultural Capital and Official Knowledge /Michael W. Apple -- Another Brick in the Wall: (Re)contextualizing the Crisis /Carol A. Stabile -- The University and the Media: Apologia Pro Vita Sua with a Defense of Rationality /Barry R. Gross -- How the Culture Wars Matter: Liberal Historiography, German History, and the Jewish Catastrophe /Jeffrey -- Money, Merit, and Democracy at the University: An Exchange -- II PEDAGOGY AND POPULATIONS -- A Critique of Critical Pedagogy /Gregory Jay and Gerald Graff -- Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only /Linda Brodkey -- Beyond the Ivory Tower: Public Intellectuals and the Crisis of Higher Education /Henry A. Giroux -- “To Sir With Love”: National Pedagogy in the Clinton Era /Judith Frank -- They’re Taking Over! and Other Myths about Race on Campus /Troy Duster -- No Special Rights /Michael Warner -- The Rhetoric of Crisis in Higher Education /Joan W. Scott -- Identity Politics and Campus Communities: An Exchange -- The Rise of “Identity Politics”: An Examination and a Critique /Todd Gitlin -- Discussion -- Contradictions of Existence: Identity and Essentialism /Cameron McCarthy -- Contesting Racial Amnesia: From Identity Politics Toward Post-Multiculturalism /Michael Dyson -- Discussion -- Identity and the Status of Afro-American Intellectuals /Jerry Watts -- Discussion -- Contributors -- Index.