Higher Education is under siege by a number of forces ranging from corporate and military interests to those who want to remove any vestige of democratic values from the academy. The Moral University provides a robust history, set of critical narratives, and engaging arguments against these dangerous postions. It also offers readers one of the best arguments we have as to why matters of ethics, public values, and social responsibility are integral to how we both define the university and create the formative educational culture necessary for any viable notion of democracy. This is a much needed book and should be read by everyone concerned not just with higher education but with democratic values and an aspiring democracy.
Henry Giroux, Global Television Network Chair Professor, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada In this short treatise, Maurice and Clair Berube explore the many intertwining strands of moral engagement within the modern American university. By examining the multiple roles higher education has historically played in building a democratic society, the authors illustrate how the American university can be a moral force acting on behalf of students, faculty, and society at large. Presenting morality as an expansive and much-contested term with clear connections to social justice, the authors imply that higher education plays an ongoing role in bringing such justice to society. This book points to an array of areas where faculty, administrators, and students can reinforce higher education's longstanding commitments to both teaching and enacting moral reasoning.
Diversity & Democracy