- Home
- social science
- Politics of Knowledge
Politics of Knowledge
The Commercialization of the University, the Professions, and Print Culture
Sales Date: 2003-06-06
320 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
Cultural analysis of the American university system.
Richard Ohmann's work is in a class by itself. While editor of College English, and in the three books he published since then, he has created America's most comprehensive vision of how teaching and scholarship are at once part of the university, of society and of history. In Politics of Knowledge, Ohmann's essays and interviews analyze, explain and criticize the roles of the university, the academic professions and publishing in a rearranged America. Focusing on the opposed movements of a more open university and overwhelmingly powerful multinational corporations, he offers language and formulations that will help present generations move closer to the hope that teaching and scholarly work can enhance the lives of all.
This scholar, teacher and activist sets his often anecdotal and autobiographical reflections within the broad tapestry of historical, economic and material conditions. It is this combination of the long backward-looking personal perspective and adept critical analysis that have made his work a resource for professors and students alike.
Foreword, by Janice Radway
Acknowledgments
Introduction
English and the Cold War
English and the USSR
Some Changes across Thirty-Five Years
Teaching Historically
Graduate Students, Professionals, Intellectuals
Politics and Commitment in Writing Instruction, as It Became a Profession
What's Happening to the University and the Professions? Can History Tell?
Teaching Literacy for Citizenship
Historical Reflections on Accountability
Academic Freedom, 2000 and After
Book and Magazine Publishing through the Period of Corporate Revolution
Epochal Change: Print Culture and Economics
The Personal as History
A Conversation between Richard Ohmann and John Trimbur
English in America Revisited: Richard Ohmann Talks with Jeffrey Williams
Notes
Permissions
Index
About the Author
RICHARD OHMANN is Professor Emeritus of English at Wesleyan University and the author of three Wesleyan books, English in America (1996), Politics of Letters (1987), and Making and Selling Culture (1996). JANICE RADWAY is Frances Fox Professor of Literature at Duke University.
""Confirms Richard Ohmann's position as one of the preeminent voices, perhaps the preeminent voice, speaking of and for the profession of English today his career offers a visible and inspiring model for mixing activism and scholarship.""
~Bruce Robbins, author of Secular Vocations
"For two generations, Richard Ohmann's writing taught us how to write. His imagination taught us how to relate language to history. His heartbeat has taught us who needs help; his backbone gives us the courage to give it. These teachings are in this book."
~David Bleich, Professor of English, University of Rochester
"Confirms Richard Ohmann's position as one of the preeminent voices, perhaps the preeminent voice, speaking of and for the profession of English today his career offers a visible and inspiring model for mixing activism and scholarship."
~Bruce Robbins, author of Secular Vocations