The assault on American excellence

Resource Information

The work The assault on American excellence represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Grosse Pointe Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The assault on American excellence

Statement of responsibility

Anthony Kronman

Creator

• Kronman, Anthony T

Author

• Kronman, Anthony T

Subject

• EDUCATION / Higher
• Education, Higher -- Aims and objectives -- United States
• Democracy -- United States
• Intellectual freedom -- United States
• Education, Higher -- Political aspects -- United States
• EDUCATION / Aims & Objectives

Language

eng

Summary

"The former dean of Yale Law School surveys the full sweep of recent campus controversies to show how these disputes threaten the best of America's intellectual traditions--including democracy itself. In his tenure at Yale, Anthony Kronman has watched students march across campus to protest the names of buildings and seen colleagues resign over emails about Halloween costumes. He is no stranger to recent confrontations at American universities. But where many see only the suppression of free speech, thebabying of students, and the drive to bury the imperfect parts of our history, Kronman recognizes in these on-campus clashes a threat to our democracy. As Kronman argues in The Assault on American Excellence, the founders of our nation learned over threecenturies ago that in order for this country to have a robust democratic government, its citizens have to be trained to have tough skins, to make up their own minds, and to win arguments not on the basis of emotion but because their side is closer to thetruth. In other words, to prepare people to choose good leaders, you need to turn them into smart fighters, people who can take hits and think clearly so they're not manipulated by demagogues. Kronman is the first to tie today's campus debates back to the history of American values, drawing on luminaries like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Adams to show how these modern controversies threaten the best of our intellectual traditions. His tone is warm and optimistic, that of a humanist and a lover of thehumanities who is passionate about educating students capable of living up to the demands of a thriving democracy. Incisive and wise, The Assault on American Excellence makes the radical argument that to graduate as good citizens, college students have to be tested in a system that isn't wholly focused on being good to them"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

378.73

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography