Changing the canon, multiculturalism, feminism, political correctness - issues that began in the academy have now become a matter of civic interest. The debate pivots on definitions of culture: what it is or isn't, who makes it, what it is for, how it is taught and who gets to decide.

In the Canon's Mouth brings together the articles, reviews, and lectures that became salvos in the culture wars. Produced by the always-provocative Lillian Robinson between 1982 and 1996, these essays address such issues as separating the politics from aesthetics in feminist challenges to the canon; how to make an honest anthology - and how not to: and how government censors get away with tagging university reformers with the censor label.