The idea of excellence; the decline of the nation-state; the university within the limits of reason; the university and the idea of culture; literary culture; culture wars and cultural studies; the posthistorical university; the time of study - 1968; the scene of teaching; dwelling in the ruins; the community of dissensus.
"The University in Ruins" is both challenging and accessible.
Readings can discuss the German Idealists and Macro-Economists, F.
R. Leavis and Francois Lyotard, Beavis and Butt-Head, even Bill and
Ted and (of course) their Excellent Adventure-all without
obfuscation or condescension. His book offers acute assessments of
higher education, its architects, and its critics. There is much
material for reflection and debate here; that's the way Bill liked
things and what he liked best about the university.--Stephen M.
Buhler "Journal of English and Germanic Philology "
[An] acerbic, often witty critique of the University...[Readings]
would have made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book
will surely occasion...[W]e should be thankful [for Readings' book]
because it raises precisely the large theoretical questions that
university types often prefer to ignore.--Sanford Pinsker "The
Georgia Review "
[A] fiercely intelligent polemic about the contemporary
university...Whether they're polishing off the latest bit of
research or merely fishing in some desolate sound during the summer
break, "The University in Ruins" is a book that's indispensable to
everyone working in or attending post-secondary institutions. If
they're not in ruins yet, they're certainly under siege.--Stan
Persky "Toronto Globe and Mail "
Bill Readings...presents a comprehensible and intelligent
interpretation of the status and meaning of the university today
which draws inspiration for its ideas from paradigms as diverse as
Jean-Paul Lyotard's seminal "The Postmodern Condition" and the cult
movie of the late 1980s, "Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure"...Anyone who has been through the academic mill in the
English-speaking world at any level in the last decade will
certainly have no problem perceiving the truth of Readings's
observation that corporate-style management has become part of the
fabric of university administration.--Natasha Lehrer "Jerusalem
Post "
Bill Readings' scholarly work "The University in Ruins" is one of
the most challenging and critical books of this genre. He argues
compellingly that there is a crisis of purpose in the modern
university...Readings' arguments about the linkages between
globalisation, corporatism, culture and the university provide an
important insight into the malaise of the contemporary
university...This highly intelligent and fiercely written book is a
fine epitaph to a scholar of rare distinction.--Mal Logan "Quadrant
"
Readings argues compellingly that the university has outlived its
purpose--a purpose defined two centuries ago, when the nation-state
and the modern notion of culture came together to make the
university the guardian of national culture...What, Readings asks,
"is the point of the University, if we realize that we are no
longer to strive to realize a national identity, be it an ethnic
essence or a republican will?" What happens when the culture the
university was meant to preserve goes global and transnational
along with everything else? This is an intriguing argument.
And...it helps to explain much. From this perspective, for example,
Readings is wonderfully insightful on the "culture wars" that have
wracked universities and bewildered the public for two
decades...Readings offers a call to arms to those of us who live
and work in universities as well as to those on the outside--a call
to better understand our position in a changing world, to come out
of our professional shells, stop pi
Sadly, Readings died in a plane crash shortly after this acerbic,
often witty critique of the University was completed. He would have
made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book will surely
occasion...But what we have is Readings' book, and for that we
should be thankful because it raises precisely the large
theoretical questions that university types often prefer to
ignore.--Sanford Pinsker "The Georgia Review "
The University is a ruined institution, forced to abandon its
historical "raison d'etre" and enmeshed in consumerist
ideology...The task that substitutes for the pursuit of culture is
the adherence to Excellence, which relegates the university to the
treadmill of global capitalism. It turns out graduates as objects,
not subjects, at so much per head, under the scrutiny of the state
bureaucracy. That is the nub of Bill Readings's superbly argued
pessimism...His essay provides an insight into contemporary
vexation as experienced in every form of society and community
obliged to exist in the new globalized economy. The university has
always suggested an institution immune to wider trends, but
Readings...argues very convincingly for its fragility. It is a
microcosm caught in the coils of consumerism, and forced to act as
a satrap in that kingdom...The dysfunction, as he envisages it, is
very deeply pondered and rather brilliantly expounded.--Anthony
Smith, President, Magdalen College, Oxfo
ÝAn¨ acerbic, often witty critique of the University...ÝReadings¨
would have made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book
will surely occasion...ÝW¨e should be thankful Ýfor Readings' book¨
because it raises precisely the large theoretical questions that
university types often prefer to ignore. -- Sanford Pinsker "The
Georgia Review"
ÝA¨ fiercely intelligent polemic about the contemporary
university...Whether they're polishing off the latest bit of
research or merely fishing in some desolate sound during the summer
break, "The University in Ruins" is a book that's indispensable to
everyone working in or attending post-secondary institutions. If
they're not in ruins yet, they're certainly under siege. -- Stan
Persky "Toronto Globe and Mail"
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