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  • American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges
  • Patrick Dilley (bio)
Philip G. Altbach, Robert O. Berndahl, and Patricia J. Gumport (Eds.). American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges( 2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. 558 pp. Cloth: $60.00. ISBN 0-8018-8034-3.

As many scholars recognize, the crises in higher education are rarely new, even though social and other forms of change influence specific dilemmas. Federal and state legislators and other policymakers, though, might not always see these issues with historical or contextual perspectives. This second edition of American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Centuryis both a solid examination of the current state of postsecondary education in the United States and a rejoinder to those who would proclaim that the current status is uniquely threatened by politics, finances, and social changes.

Several chapters provide the historical and social context for U.S. postsecondary education. Philip Altbach outlines patterns in the development of higher education as a concept and a system, while Roger Geiger proffers a generational analysis for understanding U.S. higher education. Eric Dey and Sylvia Hurtado's chapter concerning the changing contexts of college students provides data on recent student attitudes and experiences, juxtaposed to prior data.

One conclusion from this book is that external influences on higher education are just as relevant in today's academic environment as in the past, although perhaps more extensive and intricate. Frank Schmidtlein and Robert Berndahl survey these influences in a chapter that focuses in part on autonomy and accountability initiatives from federal and state governmental agencies, themes explored again in chapters on the interplay of the federal government (by Lawrence Gladieux, Jacqueline King, and Melanie Corrigan), state governments (by Aims McGuinness Jr.), legalities (by Michael Olivas), and other external constituencies (by Fred Harcleroad and Judith Eaton) on higher education.

While those chapters show how pervasive these influences are on higher education as a system, Altbach's chapter on the professoriate, and Robert Birnbaum and Peter Eckel's chapter on presidential leadership demonstrate how both affect components (and individuals) within that system. Michael Bastedo explores the contemporary roots of current postsecondary curricular issues, focusing on the reciprocal relationship between the curriculum and changing societal needs and desires over the past 300 years. Historical analysis also shapes Patricia Gumport's chapter on graduate research and education. She offers a comprehensive examination of how the concept of advanced study became, through the influence of governmental, private and commercial entities, perhaps the foremost indicator of a postsecondary institution's (and its faculty's) value and standing, with particular expenses being paid in terms of academic freedom, student indebtedness, and student socialization into the professions.

Gumport teams up with Marc Chun in an outstanding analysis of the positive benefits of technological innovations as applied to higher education, as well as the negative consequences on collegiate learning, while Robert O'Neil explores potential challenging changes in the concept of academic freedom for the professoriate in a post-September 11 environment.

Bruce Johnstone outlines a point of conjunction between the personal and the systemic questions facing higher education: Is higher education a public good or a personal benefit? The answer to that question determines in large part the legislative and policy responses to the question, Who should pay for higher education? These questions are part of Johnstone's list of broad issues in higher education finance: the size and scope of the systems of U.S. postsecondary education, the efficiency and productivity of that system, and the revenue sources to support the systems. This framework connects to the concept of market systems in higher education, as delineated in a chapter by Shelia Slaughter and Gary Rhoades. They provide a slightly different take on the question of public good and personal benefit, outlining a connection between a student financial aid system that appears to provide a personal benefit while promoting a public good and the personal benefit to those postsecondary institutions whose subsidized research agendas provide funding through patents and copyrights.

Ami Zusman, in perhaps the most ambitious chapter in this collection, also notes the increasing commercialization and...

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