Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010231342 | LC89 G53 2007 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
President Eisenhower originally included 'academic' in the draft of his landmark, oft-quoted speech on the military-industrial-complex. Giroux tells why Eisenhower saw the academy as part of the famous complex - and how his warning was vitally prescient for 21st-century America. Giroux details the sweeping post-9/11 assault being waged on the academy by militarization, corporatization, and right-wing fundamentalists who increasingly view critical thought itself as a threat to the dominant political order. Giroux argues that the university has become a handmaiden of the Pentagon and corporate interests, it has lost its claim to independence and critical learning and has compromised its role as a democratic public sphere. And yet, in spite of its present embattled status and the inroads made by corporate power, the defense industries, and the right wing extremists, Giroux defends the university as one of the few public spaces left capable of raising important questions and educating students to be critical and engaged agents. He concludes by making a strong case for reclaiming it as a democratic public sphere.
Author Notes
Henry A. Giroux is the well-known author of numerous books and articles on society, education, and political culture. He is Waterbury Chair of Education at Pennsylvania State University and lives in State College, Pennsylvania.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews 1
Choice Review
In this book Giroux (McMasters Univ., Canada) continues to develop his analysis of higher education in the US, adding to the voluminous body of work he has published over the past 30 years. He writes from the standpoint of a public intellectual and from within the school of thought founded by Paulo Freire. The title comes from Eisenhower's famous presidential farewell address, in which he had originally intended to include a warning about the academy as well as the military and the defense industry forming a potentially dangerous "complex." The book consists of three main chapters. In the first Giroux's primary concern is to make clear the ways that the thinking of the military is being infused into higher education and into US society generally. The second chapter focuses on the ways in which universities are rapidly succumbing to entrepreneurial business thinking and corporate behavior. Bill Reading's The University in Ruins (CH, Jan'97, 34-2880) is especially useful on this topic. The third chapter turns to the ongoing right-wing attack on universities, particularly on social sciences and humanities. Giroux argues that this attempt to stifle critical thinking threatens to destroy the university's role in democratizing society. Right-wing politicization of the university concerns him most. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections. P. N. Malcolmson St. Thomas University
