The Capitalist University
The Transformations of Higher Education in the United States since 1945
By (author) Henry Heller
Publication date:
20 October 2016Length of book:
272 pagesPublisher
Pluto PressISBN-13: 9781783719754
Can the ivory tower rise above capitalism? Or are the humanities and social sciences merely handmaids to the American imperial order? The Capitalist University surveys the history of higher education in the United States over the last century, revealing how campuses and classrooms have become battlegrounds in the struggle between liberatory knowledge and commodified learning.
Henry Heller takes readers from the ideological apparatus of the early Cold War, through the revolts of the 1960s and on to the contemporary malaise of postmodernism, neoliberalism and the so-called 'knowledge economy' of academic capitalism. He reveals how American educational institutions have been forced to decide between teaching students to question the dominant order and helping to perpetuate it. The Capitalist University presents a comprehensive overview of a topic which affects millions of students in America and increasingly, across the globe.
Henry Heller takes readers from the ideological apparatus of the early Cold War, through the revolts of the 1960s and on to the contemporary malaise of postmodernism, neoliberalism and the so-called 'knowledge economy' of academic capitalism. He reveals how American educational institutions have been forced to decide between teaching students to question the dominant order and helping to perpetuate it. The Capitalist University presents a comprehensive overview of a topic which affects millions of students in America and increasingly, across the globe.
'The Capitalist University is a tour de force -- a welcome successor to Thorstein Veblen's classic The Higher Education in America. Heller carefully explains how the university system is used to shape students and society as a whole to reinforce and expand the influence of capitalism. Nonetheless, Heller shows how some scholars were still able to generate valuable critical knowledge'