Idealism and liberal education /

Freedman's wise and engaging essays challenge the prevalent image of university presidents as administrators unwilling or unable to articulate the larger social purposes of education. This compilation of previously published essays and public lectures results in a diversely focused and inspirational book that is part intellectual autobiography, part rationale for broad and liberal learning, part exploration of the character attributes that make some 20th-century intellectual leaders worthy of our esteem. Trained as an attorney, Freedman clerked for Thurgood Marshall, was dean of the law school at the University of Pennsylvania, president of the University of Iowa, and is now president at Dartmouth. This experience serves as backdrop to his exploration of his own awakening to ideas and reflects on the predicament of students today. Unique in its optimistic tone and range of commentary (with reflections on the lives and work of Flannery O'Connor, Martin Luther King Jr., Vaclav Havel, George Kennan, Eudora Welty, Ralph Bunche, and Louis Brandeis, among many others), this book will provoke readers to further study. Especially noteworthy is his strong defense of diversity and equality in education. Highly recommended for general readers and undergraduates. T. R. Glander Nazareth College of Rochester