Values in Conflict: The University, the Marketplace, and the Trials of Liberal Education by Paul Axelrod (review)

300 The Canadian Historical Review disruptions of the musical dynamics of distance in Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations, the willful discontinuities effected by Gould's multiply-spliced digital reproductions, and McLuhan's influence on the 'Idea of North,' where voice-overs, in emulation of Webern, press listeners to engage simultaneously on several levels. And he suggests how McLuhan informed the work of the Paris situationalists, whose explorations of the psychogeographies of urban space make notable the artifices ofcontinuity in spectacular culture, demanding that the sensing subject not merely transit through but viscerally encounter the urban environment. This last influence has had its own recent buoyant recursive emanation in the celebrated work ofthe Canadians Janet Cardiffand George Bures. Ifin Part One of this volume, Cavell claims too much for McLuhan as a precursor ofLefebvre, in Part Two he makes a compelling case for his aesthetic legacy. JOY PARR Simon Fraser University Values in Conflict: The University, the Marketplace, and the Trials ofLiberal Education. PAUL AXELROD. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 2002. Pp. 216. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper Paul Axelrod of York University has made important contributions to Canadian university history. These include Scholars and Dollars: Politics, Economics and the Universities ofOntario, 1945-1980 (1982), Youth, University , and Canadian Society: Essays in the Social History ofHigher Education (1989), and Making the Middle Class: Student Life in English Canada during the Thirties (1990). In contrast to these historical publications, Values in Conflict is a five-chapter diagnosis and prognosis about problems now plaguing Canadian universities. His diagnosis? The university's central role of 'nourishing ofintellectual life' is under threat 'by political and economic pressures that are redefining and reshaping' higher education. Our leaders aim to make Canada 'globally competitive, technologically advanced, and proficient at churning out 'knowledge workers' for the twenty-first century.' And his prognosis? It is a future where 'our universities will resemble little more than giant training warehouses, where short-term corporate needs dictate curricula to students who are increasinglytaught not by professors but by advanced, impersonal technology.' However, all is not yet lost ifwe think critically about the future direction of university life and work to protect liberal education. But what is liberal education? Chapter l investigates its history, providing an excellent overview of the key contributors, influences, and Reviews 301 developments that have shaped today's university. These include ancient and medieval thinkers, religion, science, war, industrial capitalism, and modern liberal thought. Varied definitions of liberal education have abounded. As well, the dual aims ofvocationalism and cultural formation have existed for centuries in university life. Axelrod concludes that the contemporary university 'serves a wide range of goals that arise from academic, cultural, community-based, political, and economic forces.' From this historical overview, he develops his own interpretation of liberal education in chapter 2: 'Liberal education in the university refers to activities that are designed to cultivate intellectual creativity, autonomy, and resilience; critical thinking; a combination ofintellectual breadth and specialized knowledge; the comprehension and tolerance ofdiverse ideas and experiences; informed participation in community life; and effective communication skills.' In chapter 3, Axelrod asserts that liberal education should not be judged by its direct economic contribution. However, even if it is, 'the social sciences and humanities, contrary to popular belief, prove their worth.' Moreover, technical knowledge often has 'a limited lifespan' and job market needs shift rapidly, making it futile to tie higher education strictly to the needs ofthe marketplace. Chapter 4 argues that the most serious threat to liberal education is 'recent government policies that privilege certain academic endeavours over others, namely, applied science, high technology, business, selected professions, and mission-oriented research, all at the expense ofthe social sciences and humanities, the fine arts, and basic scholarly inquiry.' Declining government support, rising tuition fees, more corporate-sponsored research, special incentives for technology, health, and the sciences, growing dependence on part-time faculty for teaching, 'academic capitalism,' preoccupation with performance indicators, and globalization are among the factors undermining liberal education. University-corporate collaboration should not end, but academics need to block corporate interference in university affairs and strive to maintain the quality ofliberal arts instruction. In his final chapter, Axelrod urges academics themselves...