Description
"About the Book A New Deal for the Humanities brings together twelve prominent scholars who shed light on the many concerns swirling around the humanities today--exploring the history of the liberal arts in America, their present state, and their future direction. The volume focuses on public higher education, for it is in our state schools that the liberal arts are taught to the greatest numbers, where the decline of those fields would be most damaging, and where their strength is most threatened. Book Synopsis Many in higher education fear that the humanities are facing a crisis. But even if the rhetoric about ""crisis"" is overblown, humanities departments do face increasing pressure from administrators, politicians, parents, and students. In A New Deal for the Humanities, Gordon Hutner and Feisal G. Mohamed bring together twelve prominent scholars who address the history, the present state, and the future direction of the humanities. These scholars keep the focus on public higher education, for it is in our state schools that the liberal arts are taught to the greatest numbers and where their neglect would be most damaging for the nation. The contributors offer spirited and thought-provoking debates on a diverse range of topics. For instance, they deplore the push by administrations to narrow learning into quantifiable outcomes as well as the demands of state governments for more practical, usable training. Indeed, for those who suggest that a college education should be ""practical""--that it should lean toward the sciences and engineering, where the high-paying jobs are--this book points out that while a few nations produce as many technicians as the United States does, America is still renowned worldwide for its innovation and creativity, skills taught most effectively in the humanities. Most importantly, the essays in this collection examine ways to make the humanities even more effective, such as offering a broader array of options than the traditional major/minor scheme, options that combine a student's professional and intellectual interests, like the new medical humanities programs. A democracy can only be as energetic as the minds of its citizens, and the questions fundamental to the humanities are also fundamental to a thoughtful life. A New Deal for the Humanities takes an intrepid step in making the humanities--and our citizens--even stronger in the future. Review Quotes ""Hutner and Mohamed offer ten essays about changing views of a liberal arts philosophy in public institutions of higher education ... The essays are all by respected and experienced scholars, among them Jeffrey Williams (Carnegie Mellon), Yolanda Moses (Univ. of California, Riverside), and Christopher Newfield (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) ... Summing up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals.""-- ""CHOICE"" ""This book is an important companion and corrective to recent work. The cases made in these valuable essays are varied, subtle, and provocative, and affirm that nothing could be more important than to invest our public dollars in the humanities crucible of effective citizenry and global awareness.""--Susanne Woods ""Council of Independent Colleges"" About the Author GORDON HUTNER is a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of several books, including What America Read: Taste, Class, and the Novel, 1920-1960. FEISAL G. MOHAMED is a professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. A past president of the Milton Society of America, his latest book is Milton and the Post-Secular Present: Ethics, Politics, Terrorism ."
