Stephen J. Nelson is professor of education and educational leadership at Bridgewater State University and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University.

The American college and university have never been more essential to the health of the nation and at the same time, more under threat. In a series of interlocking essays exploiting the insights of wise elders, Nelson depicts a varied, ever-evolving academic “marketplace” serving disparate needs and interests. His defense of the university’s fundamental imperatives—open inquiry and service—is more pertinent today than ever.

• Chapter 1 Religion in the Nation and the AcademyChapter 2 The University: What is It and How Does Its Center Hold?Chapter 3 Contentious Compatibility and the Common Good: The University as Servant and Critic in a DemocracyChapter 4 The Purpose of the College: Clashes over Liberal Education and Ideas that PrevailChapter 5 The Rise of the University: The Influence of Progressivism and the Social GospelChapter 6 Battles over Liberty, Academic Freedom and Free SpeechChapter 7 The Disuniting of America and the University: A Reprise of Academic Freedom and the Threat of Balkanization in the Quest for Pluralism and DiversityChapter 8 The Contemporary Ideological World of the McCarthy Era to Present: Political Rightness and Wrong-HeadednessChapter 9 A Coda: The Concept of a University in America and the Culture We Deserve

Stephen J. Nelson is professor of education and educational leadership at Bridgewater State University and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University.

The American college and university have never been more essential to the health of the nation and at the same time, more under threat. In a series of interlocking essays exploiting the insights of wise elders, Nelson depicts a varied, ever-evolving academic “marketplace” serving disparate needs and interests. His defense of the university’s fundamental imperatives—open inquiry and service—is more pertinent today than ever.

• Chapter 1 Religion in the Nation and the AcademyChapter 2 The University: What is It and How Does Its Center Hold?Chapter 3 Contentious Compatibility and the Common Good: The University as Servant and Critic in a DemocracyChapter 4 The Purpose of the College: Clashes over Liberal Education and Ideas that PrevailChapter 5 The Rise of the University: The Influence of Progressivism and the Social GospelChapter 6 Battles over Liberty, Academic Freedom and Free SpeechChapter 7 The Disuniting of America and the University: A Reprise of Academic Freedom and the Threat of Balkanization in the Quest for Pluralism and DiversityChapter 8 The Contemporary Ideological World of the McCarthy Era to Present: Political Rightness and Wrong-HeadednessChapter 9 A Coda: The Concept of a University in America and the Culture We Deserve