Review
“The Humanities and the Dream of America offers a compelling account of what’s been happening to the humanities and why we should care about it—and them. What the humanities can do for us—and it is a lot!—is intimately dependent on our personal judgment about what we ought to do. Geoffrey Galt Harpham very convincingly shows the richness of the American project named in the term, which he eloquently glosses as the business of ‘the disciplines that speak of the human.’ Persuasive, rich, and worth debating with, this extremely readable book will be picked up by politicians, scholars, and the general public alike. There is nothing else like it out there.”—Michael Wood, Princeton University
“This is a rich and significant collection of essays on the state of the humanities, the nature of teaching and research, the history and social function of the university, and the place of books in our contemporary experience. The Humanities and the Dream of America is a book that readers will engage with, argue against, agree and disagree with—but above all else, it is a book that readers will have to take very seriously.”—Seth Lerer, University of California, San Diego