EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY

A roster of men in both the field of public responsibility and education sets the high standard of excellence -- provocative, inspirational, factually stimulating -- in this unusual collection of writings on a subject of significance today. Hutchins challenges the basic premise -- Is Democracy Possible? He warns us that the beginning of an anti-democratic trend is worldwide. He feels part of the responsibility lies at the door of today's undernourished, superficial educational philosophy. Adlai Stevenson assesses the issue of politics and morality and Commager weighs the imbalance of private enterprise and public service as a contributing factor in the lack of statesmen. leo Strauss, Margaret Mead and F.S.C. Northrop -- with viewpoints at times strikingly divergent- force us to take a new look at liberal education, education for the changing world, education and the whole man. Final chapters bring into focus education in action, in government, in labor, in business. This is not a book for reading hurriedly but rather for study and consideration. Some of the contributors attack our basic precepts; all force us to self examination and reconsideration of our assumptions.