The Death of Learning: How American Education Has Failed Our Students and What to Do about It

The liberal arts are dying. They are dying because most Americans don't see the point of them. Americans don't understand why anyone would study literature or history or the classics--or, more contemporarily, feminist criticism, whiteness studies, or the literature of postcolonial states--when they can get an engineering or business degree. Even more concerning is when they read how "Western civilization" has become a termof reproach at so many supposedly thoughtful institutions; or how fanatical political correctness works hard to silence alternative viewpoints; or, more generally, how liberal studies have become scattered, narrow, and small. In this atmosphere, it's hard to convince parents or their progeny that a liberal education is all that wonderful or that it's even worthy of respect. Over sixty years ago, we were introduced to the idea of "the two cultures" in higher education-- that is, the growing rift in the academy between the humanities and the sciences, a rift wherein nei