The James G. Martin Center has a large library of books on higher education, but there are always more that we’d like to have. Sometimes, supporters acquire books for us and, in the spirit of a letter to Santa, Jenna Robinson here lists ten books that we would like to add.
Most are recent, but not all. The list includes Northrop Frye’s 1964 The Educated Imagination, which was the summer-reading assignment when I was a college freshman in 1969. I’d like to revisit it.
Some of the books look excellent, such as What Universities Owe Democracy by Ronald Daniels. Others look very dubious, such as Indentured Students by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, which appears to be a “social justice” rant demanding that the government forgive tons of student debt. At the Martin Center, we consider all points of view, extolling those that we think might help move us toward the academic renewal we need and clashing with those that would take us in the wrong direction.