Politics of Knowledge: The Commercialization of the University, the Professions, and Print Culture.(Book Review)

Politics of Knowledge: The Commercialization of the University, the Professions, and Print Culture. Richard Ohmann. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2003.

In this timely book, Richard Ohmann argues that American higher education and the meaning of publishing, scholarly work, and teaching is changing. From the viewpoint of a graduate student in the late 1950s, through his long career as an English professor at Wesleyan University, Ohmann shares his cultural analysis of the modern university system in the United States through anecdotes, autobiography, essays, and interviews.

American universities find themselves at a turning point today. This book looks at many of the disconcerting issues facing higher education through insights and firsthand experiences in the academy. Ohmann examines the changes that have occurred over the past fifty years and explores the problematic financial links that have developed between the university, business, and government. Despite popular culture stereotypes, the traditional role of a professor is to teach and do research, but there is more. Professors mentor and influence their students. They convey values and help build character. However, there are new pressures facing faculty today as universities seek to make up funding shortfalls that are the result of budget cuts in federal and state support of higher education. Universities now expect to profit from the research and teaching activities of their faculty.

The establishment of academic entrepreneurship as a major strategic activity introduces the ...