MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04059fam a2200433 a 4500
001 1883712
005 20220609015502.0
008 960305t19961996mau b 001 0 eng
010 $a 96033866
020 $a0807031186 (cloth)
035 $a(OCoLC)34411019
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm34411019
035 $9ALX3533CU
035 $a(NNC)1883712
035 $a1883712
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC$dNNC$dOrLoB-B
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aE169.1$b.L5372 1996
082 00 $a001.1/0973$220
100 1 $aLevine, Lawrence W.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50049115
245 14 $aThe opening of the American mind :$bcanons, culture, and history /$cLawrence W. Levine.
260 $aBoston :$bBeacon Press,$c[1996], ©1996.
263 $a9609
300 $axxiv, 212 pages ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 00 $gPt. I.$tA Historian in Wonderland.$g1.$tThrough the Looking Glass --$gPt. II.$tLearning and Legitimacy.$g2.$tThe Discipline and Furniture of the Mind: The Clash Over the Classical Curriculum.$g3.$tLooking Eastward: The Career of Western Civ.$g4.$tEnglish and American: A Tale of Two Literatures.$g5.$tCanons and Culture --$gPt. III.$tThe Search for American Identity.$g6.$tFrom the Melting Pot to the Pluralist Vision.$g7.$tThe Troublesome Presence.$g8.$tThe Ethnic Dynamic.$g9.$tExplanations.$g10.$tMulticulturalism: Historians, Universities, and the Emerging Nation.
520 $aIn recent years there has been a spate of right-wing books attacking the contemporary university. The idea that the university curriculum has been hijacked by radical professors is an article of faith among conservatives and has fueled more than one best-seller. Until now, there has been no forceful, accessible book responding in a comprehensive way for a wide audience.
520 8 $aIn The Opening of the American Mind, MacArthur award-winning historian Lawrence W. Levine - whose work Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has called "required reading for everyone interested in American culture and its history" - takes back the debate with a powerful argument about universities, history, and American identity.
520 8 $aLevine shows, first of all, that conservative critics of the university are both systematically wrong and ignorant of history. The canon that they claim is immutable has always been a living thing - shifting with the politics and society of the times. As recently as the late nineteenth century, the very literature the conservatives are nostalgic for was viewed as peripheral; even the president of Yale warned against the perils of studying English or American literature.
520 8 $aThe western civilization curriculum sixties liberals are accused of dismantling was out of favor before they ever became professorsand was itself the result of a government program after World War I to ensure that American values were taught in the university, not the result of politically neutral inquiry and consensus.
520 8 $aWith rigorous analysis and wonderfully entertaining storytelling, Levine shows that the new multicultural shift in American culture and education is not the result of a plot by a cabal of politically correct radical professors, but a reflection of a dynamic of social change that is uniquely American - and that is to be celebrated. Levine argues that critics' attacks mask deeper fears of a multicultural society - fears that have ties to old anxieties about immigration and a loss of American identity.
520 8 $aLevine defends a positive picture of social change and a new vision of American identity that is inclusive, democratic, and forward-looking.
651 0 $aUnited States$xIntellectual life.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140363
650 0 $aEducation, Higher$zUnited States.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh95008672
852 00 $bbar$hE169.1$i.L5372 1996
852 00 $bglx$hE169.1$i.L5372 1996
852 00 $bmil$hE169.1$i.L5372 1996