Bromwich, David.
Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992. 257 pp.
Graff, Gerald.
Beyond The Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize
American Education.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. 214 pp.
Introduction:
Loyal Opposition in the Curricular
Debate
curriculum
(krIkjwlm).
Pl. -ula. (L., =course, career (lit.
and
fig.) A course;
spec. a regular course of study or training, as at a school or university.
1633
Munimenta Univ. Glasg. (1854)
III. 379 Finito anni curriculo discessurum.
1643 Ibid. II. 317 Curriculum quinque annorum. 1824
J. RUSSELL Tour Germ. (1828) I.iii. 134 When the
(German) student has finished his curriculum, and leaves the
university. 1829Glasg. Univ. Cal. 39 The curriculum
of students who mean to take degrees in Surgery to be three
years. 1870 ROLLESTON Amin. Life
Introd. 84. The completion of the entire curriculum of metamorphosis.
1888 BURGON Lives 12 Gd. Men II. ix. 201. Butler's immortal
Work has . . . been elbowed out from the Oxford curriculum. (Oxford
English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989)
[End Page 215]
For many scholars and administrators, the current curriculum has become
as much a source of controversy as of consensus. Both Gerald Graff's
Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize
American Education
and David Bromwich's
Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking, reflect the current climate for curricular alternatives.
"Traditionalists" who feel that the move toward a more "expanded" and
"inclusive" curriculum has led to a decline in the stature and quality
of universities, and "progressives," who welcome such a move, have
defined public debate regarding higher education. Numerous critiques of
American higher education and its curriculum have taken the traditional,
conservative side (e.g., Bennett, 1984; Bloom, 1987; Cheney, 1989;
D'Souzsa, 1991). Faculty members and scholars
1
who support less traditional modes of inquiry and critique such as
deconstructionism, feminism, and Marxism have made what Rosovsky (1990)
characterizes as "justified demands for places in our institutions
[of higher education]" (as quoted in Bromwich, 1992, p. 42).
Graff and Bromwich seek alternatives to this polarized curricular
debate. The two literary scholars share some common assumptions and
rhetoric in critiquing the current state of universities. They both
argue that students are central to any discussion of teaching and
learning, that students must be engaged in an ongoing conversation about
and examination of what they study, and that high-quality faculty are
critical for considerations of reform.
Despite similar backgrounds, shared assumptions, and motivations, Graff's
and Bromwich's views of curricular reform are significantly different. In
simplest terms, Graff seeks to move beyond the "wars" over curriculum by
negotiating a peace settlement in which students study both sides of the
debate as well as the debate itself. Bromwich, in contrast, argues that
the current curricular debate condescends to students and trivializes
scholarship by viewing education as simply a socialization process. He
argues that students must be educated to view the world beyond themselves
both presently and historically. The overall distinctions between Graff
and Bromwich are subtle and varied. At their core, these differences
originate from (a) differing conceptions of students and the teaching
and learning process, and (b) clashing perceptions of the forces shaping
the curricular debate.
Students, Teaching, and Learning
Concerned with the content and transmission of curriculum, Graff and
Bromwich focus upon the nature of teaching and learning at the university.
[End Page 216]
Though acknowledging the bureaucratic and institutional barriers which
teachers and learners must face, the authors concern themselves primarily
with the interaction between faculty and students.
Focus Upon Students
Graff's
Beyond The Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize
American Education
presents an intriguing argument that is reflected in its subtitle. In
Graff's view the debate between "traditional" and "modern" curriculum
fails to serve the student. He takes issue with Bennett, Cheney,
Bloom, and others who argue that modern universities have completely
failed their students by not providing a coherent, rigid course
of study. However, Graff does suggest that universities have failed
students by not including them in the current discussion over the course
of study. In discussing the lack of consideration given to the needs,
wants, and perspectives of students, Graff appropriately questions the
salience of curricular debates to those around whom it should center:
Too much of the current debate is simply irrelevant to the educational
problem as it is experienced by the struggling student. The most neglected
fact about the culture war is that its issues are clearer and more
meaningful to the contending parties than they are to the student. It
is not the conflicts dividing the university that should worry us but
the fact that students are not playing a more active role in them. (p. 11)
Graff stresses the need to consider the importance of teaching and
of maintaining student interest. He suggests that debate over what
constitutes the literary canon is meaningless if students are sleeping
during lectures and uninspired to do the reading.
In Graff's view, the actual debates and conflicts which characterize
modern academic life may be more interesting to students than the
subjects and materials over which the debate is held. Building upon a
hypothetical and somewhat stereotypical argument between an Old Male
Professor and a Young Female Professor regarding the merits of Matthew
Arnold's Victorian poem "Dover Beach," Graff attempts to demonstrate that
the somewhat heated exchange between these two faculty members can be the
starting point for a common cultural discussion which should actively
include students. Graff believes that students have been essentially
ignored in the debates over curriculum reform, not only as subjects,
but more importantly as participants.
However attractive one might find Graff's suggestion for making the
current curricular conflict the focus of study, one cannot help but ask
what lies beyond his suggested examination of the culture wars. Graff's
work seeks to negotiate a curricular settlement between what we might
describe as the "traditionalist" and "modernist" camps. David Bromwich's
Politics by Other
[End Page 217]
Means,
on the other hand, looks beyond the current debate and critically
assesses all contemporary conceptions of teaching and learning. He
argues for a course of education in which students are encouraged
towards inquiry and a way of living for something beyond themselves. In
significant contrast with Graff's view of students, Bromwich argues that
education, like Clausewitz's description of war is simply "politics by
other means," if one views it simply as a process of social adjustment
(pp. xii-xiii). Dissecting with equal attention the arguments of
those in the "conservative" and "modernist" camps, Bromwich argues that
the conservative political culture outside the academy and the liberal
political culture inside the academy have both made the fallacious
assumption that the social and intellectual realms are separate
spheres. In this way, Bromwich's argument echoes Graff's calls for
integration and connection between the academy and the outside world.
Focus Upon Teaching and
Learning
In spite of a common belief that students need to encounter a cohesive and
relevant curriculum, the two authors disagree over the proper focus of the
curriculum and the appropriate ways to teach it. Graff contends that the
study of literature is, in truth, the study of debate and conflict and
that learning to read critically means learning to analyze the text and
talk substantively and intelligently about one's conclusions. Students
are effectively excluded from a discussion of the conflict because they
find the texts and "hidden meanings" upon which much literary discussion
rests difficult to comprehend.
Graff acknowledges that literary scholars of all schools often make
inaccessible the language of theory and criticism which are necessary to
participate in textual debates. Yet they expect their students to produce
this language. Graff finds that the students' task is made increasingly
harder by the expanding variety of their backgrounds and interests:
In the heat of today's culture wars . . . the need to line up one set of
books and ideas over another obscures the fact that the problem for most
students has always been the "more basic and simple" one of learning to
deal with books and ideas themselves. (p. 87).
However apt Graff's identification of the problem, his solution fails to
address all of his own concerns. In Graff's view, all styles of reading
from the traditional to the Marxist are "methods." Students find these
"methods" difficult, not because they find the "methods" lacking in
substance or applicability but rather because they have not been properly
socialized into the "academic intellectual community" (p. 76). Graff's
desire to "socialize" students into the academic community is troublesome,
for it implies that a
[End Page 218]
student's creativity and insight are not as critical as his or her
understanding of academic conventions. Although he discusses the need
for interaction between the university and the outside world, he finds
the seclusion and isolation of academics an acceptable defense in this
case. Rather than reaching out to students and their "community,"
Graff suggests overcoming barriers between faculty and students by
instructing students in the customs and conventions of university's
academic "community."
Bromwich, on the other hand, does not conclude that teaching the
conflicts offers a solution to the problem of the detached nature of
the academy. While his work, in consequence, does not provide specific
suggestions for curricular reform, it does present a substantive and
classic argument which is concerned far more with the philosophic bases
of higher education than simply with current academic fads.
Grand considerations aside, Bromwich still offers a unique and articulate
perspective on contemporary higher education. In response to those who
argue for speech codes and other measures to "foster" community, Bromwich
suggests that "the University has the task of 'fostering' nothing except
the people who can use it" (p. 32), namely students. Bromwich decries
the suggestion made by Graff, among others, that the university should
be concerned with the inculcation of values in its students, stating:
Higher education is the learning of certain habits, above all a habit
of sustained attention to things outside one's familiar circuit of
interests; and it is the beginning of a work of self-knowledge that
will decompose one's given habits and identities. In these respects
the aims of education are deeply at odds with the aims of any coherent
and socializing culture. The former is critical and ironic, the latter
purposeful and supervisory. (p. 50)
The current debate is dominated by those who view education as concerned
primarily with group thinking--the indoctrination of students into
particular cultural and political persuasions. Bromwich expresses
his disdain for such a view of education which dismisses individual,
autonomous, creative thinking. He emphasizes his contempt for "group
thinking" by beginning his work with a quotation from the early 20th
century French mystic Simone Weil: "The intelligence is defeated as
soon as the expression of one's thoughts is preceded, explicitly or
implicitly, by the little word 'we'" (p. i).
According to Bromwich, the relationship of the individual teacher to the
individual student defines higher education's study of the humanities,
making discussions of "cultural" education and debate irrelevant as well
as dangerous. For literature speaks to and of the individual rather
than to and of that individual's culture. In his role as an academic
discussing the presentation of literature, Bromwich states:
[End Page 219]
Anyone who has ever taught a book that mattered to himself or to
herself--for as long as he or she was attentive to the book--cannot
have felt that an idea of culture was at stake. It hardly comes into
the matter. One's relation to a book is personal: it is mediated by
experience and thought, which may themselves be formed; but concerning
the laws of their formation, no one has said anything approaching the
intelligence of the artists one is impelled to teach. (p. 226)
From this perspective, the canonical debates upon which Graff seeks to
build his curriculum are meaningless to Bromwich.
In reaching out to the individual student, Graff acknowledges that
theoretical jargon and coded language exclude many from participating
in the debates over literary works. This recognition does not, however,
lead him to critically question the expanding role of theory in literary
criticism and curricular debates. It simply leads him to suggest that we
need to better indoctrinate students into the language and conventions
of these debates so that they may actively participate. Many bright and
intelligent students who have an interest in the "culture wars," literary
discourse, and other academic issues may not wish to become members
of the academic intellectual community, but Graff largely disregards
their interests.
Graff is much more sympathetic to students when he considers the trouble
they have in integrating knowledge from disparate disciplines. When
arguing for coherence within the curriculum, he finds understandable
"the confusion students feel when exposed to the abrupt and unexplained
discrepancies in assumptions as they move from course to course and
subject to subject" (p. 92). Using the metaphor of ships passing in the
night, Graff laments that student learning is so specific to a particular
course that it is difficult for students to connect it with other courses
or with the outside world. Graff finds that the lack of coherence in the
course of study has become so pervasive that disciplines have developed
their own unique, but incompatible, standards for judgment and language.
Considering the example of a bright student in the humanities who
attempts to use the conventional rhetoric and argumentation of her
discipline in the social sciences, Graff illustrates the problems for
students of ever-widening gulfs between disciplines: "Imagine trying to
write an academic paper when you sense that almost everything you say
can be used against you and that the intellectual moves that got you an
A in existentialist philosophy may get you a C minus and a dirty look in
Skinnerian behaviorism" (p. 111). This example usefully represents the
student's quandary when facing disconnected courses. It also illustrates
a weakness in Graff's own argument about the socialization of students
into academic intellectual culture. For as Graff acknowledges, there is
not just one academic culture with which a student must become familiar,
but a series of academic
[End Page 220]
cultures defined by various departments and schools of thought within
those departments.
Possibly oversimplifying matters, Graff argues that integrated
learning, a concept he considers largely indistinguishable from
interdisciplinarity, offers an escape from the current confusion a
student faces. In an integrated curriculum, disconnections as well
connections between authors become a focus of study. Playing on a
conception of common cultural referents espoused by E. D. Hirsch in
Cultural Literacy,
Graff uses the examples of William Shakespeare and Toni Morrison to argue
that one does not have to agree on the relative merits of Shakespeare and
Morrison to study and compare their works with another. One simply needs
to be able to articulate and assess what one reads. This integration is
not simply intradisciplinary, it is also interdisciplinary. In Graff's
conception of an integrated curriculum, we do not have to agree on the
value of existentialist philosophy and Skinnerism behaviorism to study
their commonalties and disconnections. Graff's desire for courses which
relate and "speak" to one another at some level is praiseworthy.
However, we might wonder if Graff goes too far in suggesting that the
model for such a curriculum is an introductory course, such as one at
Wright State in Ohio where the standard sophomore survey of English
and American literature is taught by almost the entire department
with specialists spending a day or two teaching their particular area
of interest (Graff, p. 179). The motivation behind such a course--to
give students a basis from which to relate the materials in the survey
to other more advanced courses--is admirable. However, such a course
could conceivably prevent and/or disrupt any substantial student-faculty
relationship and cast the faculty simply as socializing agents lobbying
for their specialty and/or school of inquiry. To avoid this, as Graff
acknowledges, integrated learning which focuses on coherence within and
between disciplines must assume a cohort of high-quality faculty who
are comfortable enough in their fields to be respectful of connections
and differences between it and work from other schools and disciplines.
While appreciative of efforts such as Graff's, Bromwich does not
conclude that teaching the conflicts offers a solution to the problem
of the detached nature of the academy. Rather, Bromwich builds upon the
works of the contemporary political philosopher Michael Oakeshott and
the 18th century political philosopher Edmund Burke. Bromwich stresses
the centrality of students and their desire for inquiry, the need for
universities to substantively engage with the world beyond its ivory
towers, the danger of professionalization among faculty, and the extent
to which a progressive, dynamic, classical view of tradition can direct
higher education beyond the currently trivial and deteriorating curricular
debate. Unlike Graff who writes
[End Page 221]
as an educational reformer proposing a particular course of action,
Bromwich writes as a literary, political, and social critic.
Making a general criticism of writers like columnist George Will who
casually propose a great books curriculum, Bromwich accuses Will and his
fellows of thinking in lists of names; however, "lists of names do not
think" (p. 51). It is the individual work whose connections to other
works are drawn by students through substantive inquiry which defines
literary study. Bromwich acknowledges that allowing works to speak
largely for themselves is a privileged view often built upon teaching
very bright and motivated students. Nevertheless, he argues that this
accomplishment is education in its sincerest sense, for "the study of
literature is . . . defensible as an act of recovery that connects us
with the persistence of human nature over time" (p. 205). Bromwich does
not see courses as self-contained; they are instead vehicles by which
students participate in a continuing, if unspoken, conversation between
works in the humanities and between the humanities and the world as a
whole. The study of literature and humanities, he suggests, is essential
for developing the liberally educated individual.
Bromwich dismisses and laments those who consider the "functional,
corporate, scientifically cashable" applications of higher education to
the job market and general industry (p. 233). For better or worse, many
students, especially those in undergraduate pre-professional programs,
view their college education as "cashable." Unfortunately, Bromwich
never directly acknowledges the needs of these students. Instead, he
suggests that the pursuit of true scholarship and liberal learning which
he proposes has never quite been in step with the commercial spirit of
American society.
2
One might also infer from this conclusion that universities have
never quite been in step with the needs of many of their business and
career-oriented students.
Graff and Bromwich's consideration of curriculum within the university
leads to questions of how "in step" universities should be with
contemporary society. The world beyond the course of study thus becomes
a critical issue in their discussion.
Shaping the Debate
Issues of Communication
Economic, social, and cultural forces from outside the classroom are
significant factors in Graff's suggestions for finding common points of
examination. Graff believes that the integrated curriculum he suggests
should not only make connections between courses and disciplines but
should also
[End Page 222]
make connections with the outside world. Graff takes examples of
politicized curriculum debates from the work of educational historians
(Horowitz, 1986; Veysey, 1965) to reply to those who feel that such
debates over content have no place in the university. Building upon this
historical perspective, Graff argues that the whole history of curriculum
in the American university has been characterized by contentious debate
over its content, thus echoing a theme prominent in Rudolph (1993).
Questions of salience and relevance to daily life also shape Graff's
view of the professoriate and its role in seeking common ground in
the debates over canons and curriculum. Graff defends the modern and
"professional" faculty from the attacks of those such as Bloom (1987)
and Cheney (1989) who see the perpetuation of area and cultural studies,
academic journals, and literary theory as emblematic of increasing
specialization. He argues that these 'professional' faculty are, in
fact, bridging gaps between the disciplines and allowing for a more
integrated approach to the curriculum. Graff concludes his defense of
modern, theory-based humanities research by stating:
What critics [Bloom and Cheney] . . . mistake for specialization
are, in fact, new languages of generalization whose premises they
either do not understand or do not agree with--usually both. These
new languages--usually lumped under the term "theory"--have made it
possible for disciplines that were once closed to one another by their
specialization not only to converse but to poach off one another to a
notorious degree. (p. 121)
In Graff's mind, this "poaching" leads to greater integration between
the disciplines, which by extension means greater integration between
the university and the outside world.
Even proponents of interdisciplinarity may be skeptical of the ease
with which Graff makes this last step. Interdisciplinarity certainly
does not promise that students will be drawn to or challenged by a
scholar's work. In either interdisciplinary or single discipline work, the
quality of scholarship is still the largest determinant of salience and
accessibility. There is truth to Graff's assumption that communication
across disciplines can foster high-quality scholarship. However, there
are limits to his implication that such communication guarantees good
quality scholarship.
Bromwich shares Graff's concern with the production of high-quality
scholars and high-quality scholarship. However, rather than negotiating
a settlement between camps in the "culture wars," Bromwich attempts
to negotiate between a fractured society beyond the university and
the fractured disciplines within it. Bromwich finds that the lack of
substantive and meaningful discussion between the university and outside
world also occurs between departments.
Bromwich argues against Graff's support of professionalization in
the disciplines. Bromwich considers inquiry in the humanities to be
a conversation
[End Page 223]
which is carried across genres and across boundaries of
disciplines. Graff and Bromwich largely agree on this view. Bromwich,
however, takes issue with Graff's defense of theory-laden
interdisciplinarity.
Bromwich advocates an interdisciplinary conversation in which all who
participate are capable of replying. He views the current expansion
of critical theory to be a product of insulation. Specialization
provides theorists with a limited language which frees them from the
judgment of others as well as the burden of learning of the world beyond
their particular, although possibly interdisciplinary, specializations
(p. 174). In Bromwich's view, the great defender of western culture, Allan
Bloom (1987), and the great proponent of non-western culture, Barbara
Herrnstein Smith, share a desire for insularity. Bromwich characterizes
their attitude as being, "Do not distract me from the politics of theory
by talk of mere politics" (p. 225). To move beyond the insularity of
culture wars, scholars must stress the need for individual inquiry and
develop a sincere rather than a cynical interest in life beyond the
university's walls.
Issues of Content
Though seeking to find a "middle ground" in teaching the conflicts, it
is clear by the end of his work that Graff sympathizes largely with the
"modern" forces in such a debate. From dismissing most horror stories
over political correctness as "bogus" (p. 8) to defending the perpetuation
of theoretical language in scholarly writing (p. 121), Graff argues that
modern economic, social, cultural, and political circumstances demand a
reformulation of the classic conception of the university. In Graff's
view, the classically conceived university "is expected to preserve,
transmit, and honor our traditions, yet at the same time it is supposed
to produce new knowledge, which means questioning received ideas and
perpetually revising traditional ways of thinking" (p. 7). According
to Graff, the new conception of the university must move beyond these
contradictions which stand at the heart of the current educational
conflicts.
Buffeted by external pressures, the university can no longer maintain
the delicate balance between the traditional and the progressive and
instead must seek refuge in a discourse between the two camps. Graff
properly argues that the politicization of the curriculum debate is not
only unavoidable but also in keeping with the purposes of education,
for, at its best, political, conflict is fought as a battle of ideas,
arguments, and principles (p. 145).
Graff suggests that it is better for students to critically examine
something "popular" in its origins (such as reading
Vanna Speaks
for its perpetuation of the capitalist ethos) than it is to simply
assign canonical works which students might not read such as Marx's
Das Kapital
(p. 100). Although many might find his example extreme, it does clearly
illustrate Graff's
[End Page 224]
essential point: that academic discussions of culture and politics need
not be devoid of relevance to daily life.
Underlying much of Bromwich's examination of liberal learning and
higher education is his criticism of most contemporary literary
education. Bromwich stresses the distinction between "liberal learning"
which educates an individual student to a sense of something beyond
himself or herself and "professional training" which teaches students
basic cognitive and technical skills so that they can provide
services to a corporate society. In reading Bromwich's discussion
of "liberal learning" and emphasis upon the individual, one might
rightfully wonder, how then are universities to "liberally educate" the
individual? What course of study, classes, or method of inquiry should
shape this education? Borrowing from Michael Oakeshott, Bromwich differs
significantly from Graff and characterizes education as "an adventure in
the precise sense" with no set course or pattern (p. 51). Thus, Bromwich
defends his lack of a detailed prescription for curricular reform.
In Bromwich's view, the great canon debate trivializes and underestimates
the role of higher education. He properly asserts that inclusion or
exclusion from a particular course syllabus is not the only measure of
a work's merit. Additionally, he finds troubling the extent to which
"debate over curriculum has become the accidental focus in which a good
many tensions of American society are dramatized" (p. 47)
Though not speaking directly to concepts of curricular development,
Bromwich makes a strong case for a vision of education based on the
classically liberal idea of tradition. Building upon an artful discussion
and examination of Edmund Burke's
Reflections upon the Revolution in France,
he sees tradition as a reforming force which allows for gradual change
and examines the continuity between past and present, as well as present
and future. Bromwich believes that most universities have discarded this
classic idea of tradition and begun to focus primarily on short-term
gains. Bromwich argues, though without any specific program of reform,
for a return to individual inquiry as opposed to group socialization
and the pursuit of practical and useful knowledge.
Bromwich concludes his argument by stating that, guided by this reforming
view of tradition, "the interpretive and imaginative part of education
is a learned art, it is a moral habit and [it] leads to people who can
think" (p. 233). In Bromwich's view, people who can think "carry an extra
weight of hope," participate actively in the substantive political and
social discourse of their world, and help a society take its options
to the higher level. Bromwich thus rests his argument on the concept of
educating a citizenry. He acknowledges that he is calling for universities
to fight against what he calls "the unreal politics" of those both inside
and outside of the academy.
Developing the details of any program of curricular reform based upon
[End Page 225]
what Bromwich suggests would be difficult and possibly counterproductive
as he does not believe in the appropriateness of an academic
"map." Nevertheless, he so artfully, intelligently, and convincingly
crafts his arguments that one can thoroughly sympathize with his desire
for urgent reform. One, however, might be unclear, as even Bromwich could
be, about the full and specific curricular implications of the argument
he makes.
Conclusion: Conceptualizing Critiques
Though extensively examining both the course of study and the domain
beyond it, Graff and Bromwich do not offer substantive suggestions
or policy implications. It is not necessarily fair to find fault with
them on this account. Neither claims to present anything other than a
detailed critique with occasional suggestions. Bromwich, in some ways,
rationalizes his lack of programmatic specifics by citing Oakeshott's
depiction of education as "an adventure" (p. 51). This characterization
of scholarship as exploration rings true. However, every adventure needs
a base from which to begin and a sense of what the journey's direction
will be. Graff attempts to provide them through his suggestion about
teaching the conflicts. Though Bromwich's skepticism about Graff's
course of action is justified, Bromwich himself comes dangerously close
to practicing the isolation for which he criticizes other members of the
higher education community. Bromwich's desire to stay above the current
curricular fray is both admirably and thoughtfully articulated in his
work. However, at the same time, simply asking the reader to have faith
in his conception of liberal learning without discussing its alternative
applications detracts somewhat from his thesis.
Those who desire detailed consideration of curricular programs and
initiatives will find Graff's and Bromwich's discussion frustratingly void
of specificity. However, those members of the academy and policy-makers
who wish to inform their own curricular initiatives with a thoughtful
discussion of the philosophical and historical issues both within and
beyond the university would do well to familiarize themselves with
Graff's and Bromwich's works. For, though Graff's perspective borders
on oversimplification and Bromwich's perspective tends towards detached
abstraction, their works provide refreshing perspectives from which to
examine the nature and purpose of the university's curriculum.
Mark R. Nemec is a doctoral candidate in political science at the
University of Michigan. He also holds an M.A. in education (higher
education) from the same institution. His primary research interest is
the relationship between ideas and institutions in politics, specifically
the role of universities in American political development.
Notes
1.
Stanley Fish of Duke University and Barbara Herrnstein Smith of the
Modern Language Association are two of the more prominent and visible
proponents of these methods considered by both Graff and Bromwich.
2.
In this sentiment Bromwich echoes and, in fact, acknowledges the work
of Bloom (1987).
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To reclaim a legacy: A report on the humanities in higher education.
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The closing of the American mind.
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Cheney, L. (1989).
50 hours: A core curriculum for college students.
Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Humanities.
D'Sousza, D. (1991).
Illiberal education: The politics of race and sex on campus.
New York: Free Press.
Horowitz, H. L. (1986).
Campus life: Undergraduate cultures from the end of the eighteenth
century to the present.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Rosovsky, H. (1990).
The university: An owner's manual.
New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Rudolph, F. (1993).
Curriculum: A history of the undergraduate curriculum since 1636.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Smith, B. H. (1988).
Contingencies of value: Alternative perspectives for critical theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Veysey, L. (1965).
The emergence of the American
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