The Higher Learning in America

One test of a classic work of social criticism is to see if the critique's central logic and arguments remain generally applicable beyond the critic's own time. One work that has lost little of its polemical power or social relevance is Thorstein Veblen's The Higher Learning in America. First published hi 1918, this volume sharply attacked the ascendency of business values and concerns in America's universities. In Veblen's critical analysis, the institutions of higher learning have taken on the aspects of corporations and trusts, relegating the pursuit of knowledge to secondary status. Today when the mission of higher education is uncertain and universities compete for endowments and students, this volume is…