The Marketplace of Ideas

Reform and Reaction in the American University

By: Louis Menand

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Has American higher education become a dinosaur? Why do professors all tend to think alike? What makes it so hard for colleges to decide which subjects should be required? Why do teachers and scholars find it so difficult to transcend the limits of their disciplines? Why, in short, are problems that should be easy for universities to solve so intractable?

The answer, Louis Menand argues, is that the institutional structure and the educational philosophy of higher education have remained the same for 100 years, while faculties and student bodies have radically changed and technology has drastically transformed the way people produce and disseminate knowledge.

Sparking a long-overdue debate about the future of American education, The Marketplace of Ideas examines what professors and students - and all the rest of us - might be better off without while assessing what is worth saving in our traditional university institutions.

©2009 Louis Menand (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Part history of higher education, part sympathetic but insistent argument for change, Menand's book is a worthy and admirably succinct exploration of why colleges are so difficult to improve." ( The Washington Monthly)

Only a Tenured Professor Would Give it 1 Star

Amazing book! Well researched and very interesting. Tenured professors will hate it. Unfortunately they are probably the only ones who will ever read it. This is one of the few books that smart liberal and conservative average Joes would both agree with. Too bad it doesn't target either one of those groups.