Universities Give Away Knowledge and Sell Degrees

This post is a piece that is included in my new book, Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. In it I focus on an issue that I’ve been thinking about for quite a while:  How to understand the core business model that governs American universities.   The answer is in …

Francis Fukuyama — Balancing Bureaucratic Autonomy and Political Control: Covid Lessons

This post is an essay by Francis Fukuyama in the latest issue of American Purpose. Here's a link to the original. It's part of a series of pieces he wrote for the magazine in defense of the Deep State, the specialized bureaucracies that allow the modern state to function effectively while political leaders come and …

Doctoral Dysfunction

This piece was published in Inside Higher Ed in June, 2020.  Here’s a link to the original.  It speaks for itself.  It also appears in my new book, Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. DOCTORAL DYSFUNCTION Many doctoral students today are tending to fall into one of two disturbing categories: academic …

Michael Ignatieff: Epistemological Panic, or Thinking for Yourself

This post is an essay by Michael Ignatieff published in the most recent issue of Liberties.  Here's a link to the original. What he's talking about is independent thinking.  Universities are supposed to be places where we teach people how to think for themselves, he says, but all too often we teach people to think like …

Links to All My Publications and Course Materials — An Updated List

For anyone who’s interested, I’m posting below an updated list of all my publications and course syllabi, including links to these works and to full course materials.  Here’s a link to the list as a Word document, which is way more useful. Feel free to share. Links to Publications and Course Materials March 31, 2023 David …

Johann Neem — Revenge of the Poorly Educated

This post is an essay by one of my favorite historians, Johann Neem.  It's a review of a new book, After the Ivory Tower Falls, written by Will Branch.  In this review, Neem examines the way that the divide between those who attended college and those who didn't has defined and defiled American politics in …

College Teaching Is Better than You’d Expect

This is an essay that is published in my new book, Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. For years, I'd been thinking about writing a piece about college teaching  and I finally put it down on paper a couple years ago. Everyone complains about the quality of teaching colleges, …

George Packer: The Moral Case Against Equity Language

This post is an essay by George Packer from the April issue of Atlantic.  Here's a link to the original. I find a thoughtful rumination on the problems posed by shifting to equity language in an effort to reduce discrimination and disparagement.  The problem, he says, is that the effort tends to lead to euphemisms, which …

My New Book Is Out: Being a Scholar

This post is a preview of my new book, which I just published with Kindle.  It's available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback.  The title is Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life.   Below is the book's introduction, which provides the rationale for the book and summarizes …

Walter Mimms — How “Please” Stopped Being Polite

This blog post is an essay from Atlantic by Walter Mimms about the peculiar evolution of the word "please" in English usage.  Somehow it evolved from the super-polite "if it please you" to the slightly less formal "if you please" to the polite but simple "please" to the peremptory "would you please move" to the …