This analysis and overview of the American academic profession aims to break the code of silence that hangs over it, as well as address some of the criticisms levelled at it. It asks can a society truly understand its universities when it has moved too quickly from admiration to complaint.

A large historical literature on America's college and universities exists, but much of it is unashamedly hagiographic. The charge of more critical volumes that American universities are in dire need of massive reform is not sustained by the contributors to The American Academic Profession. They hope to shatter the code of silence that passes for discretion, by focusing on the forces that have conspired to create the American academic profession. The American Academic Profession is not sanguine about what is currently happening in higher education, or what it imagines the future portends. It simply asks the question: Can a society truly understand its universities and colleges when it has moved too quickly from uncritical admiration to uniformed and ungenerous complaint? This volume, whose contributions are from important scholars around the world intends to dispel some long-persistent myths in favor of objective truth. It is a must for anyone interest in academic problems, for those who work in higher education, and for everyone interested in American ideas, traditions, and social and intellectual history.