The Uses of the University

America's university president extraordinaire adds a new chapter and preface to The Uses of the University, probably the most important book on the modern university ever written. This summa on higher education brings the research university into the new century. The multiversity that Clark Kerr so presciently discovered now finds itself in an age of apprehension with few certainties. Leaders of institutions of higher learning can be either hedgehogs or foxes in the new age. Kerr gives five general points of advice on what kinds of attitudes universities should adopt. He then gives a blueprint for action for foxes, suggesting that a few hedgehogs need to be around to protect university autonomy and the public weal. "No book ever written has provided such a penetrating description of the modern research university or offered such insightful comments on its special tensions and problems ... Anyone wishing to understand the American research university—past, present, and future—must begin with a careful reading of this book." —Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University