Selected Titles on
Higher Education
Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?
“Neil Gross’s work is crucial for anyone who cares about higher education and who also cares about the facts.”
—Louis Menand, Harvard University
Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality
“In this bold book, Armstrong and Hamilton capture the strikingly different pathways women undergraduates can take through public universities—‘party,’ ‘professional,’ or ‘mobility’—and show how the dominant campus culture indulges the upper-middle class and limits the prospect of the upwardly mobile. The authors show the complex connections between parental resources, sociability, educational outcome, post-graduation lives, and the importance of the right brand of shoes. This book illuminates the realities of the college experience today, when an adult life without crushing debt is fast becoming the privilege of the few.”
—Michèle Lamont, author of How Professors Think
Making Scientists: Six Principles for Effective College Teaching
“Many university leaders talk about helping a diverse group of students succeed in science—this project actually does it. Most scholars agree it is critical to evaluate teaching innovations—this project does it with rigor. Most university leaders try to make successful innovations part of campus life—this book describes how Northwestern succeeds. Other campuses can learn much from the practical and inspiring lessons in this important book.”
—Richard Light, author of Making the Most of College
What the Best College Students Do
“Some very good books are worth reading for a few splendid pages alone. Ken Bain’s What the Best College Students Do is one such book… [It] combines interviews with a review of academic research on university learning… The ‘best’ students are curious risk-takers who make connections across disciplines. By following those instincts—rather than simply chasing ‘success’—the best students achieved it. Bain’s new book is a wonderful exploration of excellence.”
—David A. Kaplan, Fortune
Teaching What You Don’t Know
“When top-down support and open communication become the norm, teaching outside one’s expertise can cease to be the nightmarish experience many feel it to be and become the illuminating and rewarding experience that Huston describes. While this is undoubtedly important, Huston’s consistently optimistic treatment of this subject and her clear suggestions for struggling teachers remain the book’s greatest strengths. Teaching What You Don’t Know is a pleasure to read and should be required reading in graduate pedagogy classes across disciplines.”
—Adam Pacton, Pedagogy
How Economics Shapes Science
“How Economics Shapes Science should be required reading for all scientists and students of science, who are increasingly called upon to adopt the language and logic of economics and engage in policy discussions… The book [argues] that private industry alone will not invest in the socially optimal level of research, which will ultimately decrease the rate of innovation and lower economic growth. The logic is worth repeating at a time when there are calls for limiting government support for research and researchers face pressures to engage in lower-risk projects. Stephan convincingly argues that monetary incentives increasingly determine the behavior of researchers at the expense of scientists’ desire to participate in the joy of solving problems, receive recognition, and obtain a good reputation.”
—Maryann Feldman, Science
Stylish Academic Writing
“Occasionally the tedium of reading an unending supply of poorly written manuscripts is upended by a cogent, well-written, piece. Helen Sword details why this is so prevalent and offers sage advice to beginning—and even senior—researchers on how to avoid dulling academic prose. I take her advice to heart. I hope to change my numerous bad habits and I dearly wish those submitting manuscripts would read this book.”
—Rick K. Wilson, Editor, The American Journal of Political Science
The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century
From Harvard University, one of the world’s preeminent institutions of liberal education, comes a collection of essays sampling topics at the forefront of academia in the twenty-first century. Written by faculty members at the cutting edge of their fields, including such luminaries as Steven Pinker, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Harry R. Lewis, these essays offer a clear and accessible overview of disciplines that are shaping the culture, and even the world. The authors invite readers to explore subjects as diverse as religious literacy and Islam, liberty and security in cyberspace, medical science and epidemiology, energy resources, evolution, morality, human rights, global history, the dark side of the American Revolution, American literature and the environment, interracial literature, and the human mind.
Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class
“Seriously researched, rich in data… [Unmaking the Public University] excavates a world of ugly facts and unsatisfactory practices that has the gritty look and feel of reality—a reality that has little to do with the glossy hype of world university ratings.”
—Anthony Grafton, The New York Review of Books
![Celebrating 100 Years of Excellence in Publishing: Harvard University Press Centennial, 1913-2013 [Picture of birthday cake]](/images/badges/hup-centennial.jpg)
