America Goes To College

A rallying cry on behalf of a distinctly American institution of higher learning-the small liberal arts college-America Goes to College combines broad-based scholarship with personal narrative and reflection. In a highly entertaining manner, John E. Seery showcases the precarious successes of a well-rounded liberal arts college education, while at the same time signaling some of the dangers that loom on the horizon. Seery contends that the liberal arts are best pursued within the face-to-face interactive setting, characteristic of the small college classroom, as opposed to the large university lecture hall. Moreover and more provocatively, he identifies political theorists as the proper custodians and practitioners of the liberal arts tradition as it unfolds today. It is the unfettered freedom of the small liberal arts college, where vision and practice can actually coincide, that makes it the embodiment of the advantages of the American higher education system-a national treasure deserving of support.

Author Biography: John E. Seery is Professor of Politics at Pomona College. He is the author of Political Theory for Mortals: Shades of Justice, Images of Death; Political Returns: Irony in Politics and Theory, from Plato to the Antinuclear Movement; and coeditor (with Daniel W. Conway) of The Politics of Irony: Essays in Self-Betrayal.

The dozen essays and speeches that Seery (politics, Pomona College) has compiled do not promote a particular point, but identify a subject matter he believes merits attention. Were he to argue such a point, it would be that a liberal arts education flourishes best, and is properly and effectively pursued, only in America's small liberal arts colleges. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR