Controversy over what role the great books should play in college curricula and questions about who defines the literary canon are at the forefront of debates in higher education. The Politics of Liberal Education enters this discussion with a sophisticated defense of educational reform in response to attacks by academic traditionalists. The authors here themselves distinguished scholars and educators share the belief that American schools, colleges, and universities can do a far better job of educating the nation s increasingly diverse population and that the liberal arts must play a...