Review by Choice Review
Most observers would agree the intellectual focus of the university worldwide has moved in the last century from the basic, abstract, or theoretical to more mundane or applied matters. To some, the rapid expansion of applied studies and professional schools is overdue, while traditionalists see it as appealing to the masses, leading to grade inflation and a deplorable erosion of humanities departments. This book is an important one, not so much for its findings on changes in the university, as for what the authors claim is the main cause: worldwide changes in cosmology and ontology, e.g., a shift from a God- to human-centered causality. The authors do a highly commendable job of tracking the changes that occurred, from basic to applied divisions, then in each of the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Particularly effective is their empirical documenting of the phenomenal rise in the social sciences, the diminution in the humanities, and the relatively steady state of the natural sciences. This is a fine book, designed for any course dealing with higher education. Not to be missed are its highly informative appendixes and bibliography. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through practitioners. R. O. Ulin emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
