The Degradation of the Academic Dogma

Abstract

This is one of most important books ever published about American university. Robert Nisbet accuses universities of having betrayed themselves. Over centuries they earned respect of society by attempting to remain faithful to what he terms the academic pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. The measure of a university's greatness and of stature of an individual scholar was determined not by immediate usefulness of work done, but by how much it contributed to scholarship, learning, and teaching. American universities abandoned this ideal, Nisbet charges, after World War II, welcoming onto their campuses academic entrepreneurs engaged in higher capitalism, highly profitable sale of knowledge. This says Nisbet, has resulted in greatest change in structure and values of university that has occurred since their founding as guilds in Middle Ages. And it may be responsible, for reasons he spells out in convincing detail, for their eventual demise as centers of learning. In her introduction, Gertrude Himmelfarb pays tribute to Robert Nisbet for his prescience in analyzing reformation of university in postwar period. A second reformation, she says, has further undermined academic dogma, first by applying principles of affirmative action and multiculturalism to curriculum as well as to student admissions and faculty hiring, and then by deconstructing disciplines, thus subverting ideas of truth, reason, and objectivity. The Degradation of Academic Dogma is even more pertinent today than when it was first published a quarter of a century ago. For those concerned with integrity of university and of intellectual life, Robert Nisbet has once again proved himself a prophet and a mentor.