JEROME KARABEL is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow of the Longview Institute, a new progressive think tank. An award-winning scholar, Karabel has appeared on Nightline, Today, and All Things Considered. He has written for the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, the Nation, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.
"This is a remarkable book....It is a staggering hidden history."
--Anthony Lewis "Jerome Karabel's marvelous study traces the
titanic struggles that defined -- and re-defined -- the Ivy
ideal....Utterly absorbing." --Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of
Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
"Vivid...electrifying...The Chosen is a refreshingly candid account
of the admissions madness at elite colleges." --Lani Guinier,
Harvard Law School "The Chosen is a fascinating study in American
cultural history." --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "An eye-opening
examination...Karabel writes clearly and well, and he has dug
deep." --Evan Thomas, Newsweek "An informed and fascinating account
of how America's elite universities have selected their student
bodies over the past 100 years." --Nathan Glazer, Professor
Emeritus of Sociology and Education, Harvard University "A
magisterial, thorough, and even-handed account of a vexed and
important issue." --Justin Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain and Walt Whitman "[A] tour de force of
investigative sociology . . . Anyone who wishes to understand the
shifting grounds of the American establishment should read The
Chosen, get shocked by the raw bigotries of the past, and accept
Karabel's challenge to rethink the meritocratic ideal." -- Todd
Gitlin, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia
University and author of The Sixties "This is a powerful book,
which is richly documented, academically authoritative, and
gracefully written...a remarkable combination of historical
scholarship and sociological analysis." -- David F. Labaree,
Stanford University "A remarkable history of the admissions process
of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton." --Malcolm Gladwell The New Yorker
"An epically scaled and scrupulously rendered history." --James
Traub, slate.com "Karabel's thorough and definitive look at elite
college admissions is fascinating . . . Karabel is a clear and
engaging writer." --David Brooks The New York Times Book Review
"The special value of The Chosen lies...in its stories, its...apt
statistics, and its analysis of backroom university politics."
--Jeffrey Kittay The Washington Post "Fascinating...The Chosen is a
monumental work of scholarship" --Charles Matthews San Jose Mercury
News "In vivid and electrifying prose, Karabel exposes the intimate
and occasionally scandalous social and political relationships that
marked college admissions at the Big Three throughout the twentieth
century. The Chosen is a refreshingly candid account of the
admissions madness at elite colleges, where merit often functioned
simply as a handmaiden to power." -- Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey
Professor at Harvard Law School and coauthor of The Miner's Canary
"Millions of Americans think of the Ivy League as a training ground
for the best and brightest. But for most of the twentieth century
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were more interested in sustaining the
aristocracy than in shaping the nation's intellectual elite. Jerome
Karabel's marvelous study traces the titanic struggles that
defined--and redefined--the Ivy ideal. An utterly absorbing account
of politics and privilege on America's most revered campuses." --
Kevin Boyle, National Book Award-winning author of Arc of Justice
"This is a remarkable book. Until you read it, you can have no real
idea how crudely these elite universities discriminated in
admissions -- against women, Jews, blacks, and others. It is a
staggering hidden history." --Anthony Lewis, former New York Times
columnist and author of Gideon's Trumpet "A magisterial and
even-handed account of a vexed and important issue." -- Justin
Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
and Walt Whitman
Who gets into what college, and why? Karabel (sociology, Univ. of California, Berkeley) has produced a powerful study of the origins of current practices of selective admission at the "Big Three" and the ways in which definitions of merit, and attendant admissions policies, evolved during the 20th century. Perhaps because access to higher education is becoming increasingly competitive (with so much made of the connection between higher education and economic success later in life), recent studies of college admissions, including Jacques Steinberg's The Gatekeepers, and the more academic Douglas S. Massey and others' The Source of the River, have focused on the role that social origin continues to play in admissions decisions at our most prestigious colleges. With merit-based admissions becoming the slogan for the Big Three, their definitions of merit were simply adjusted, Karabel notes, to assure that certain social classes continued to have an edge in admissions decisions, even while educational leaders touted their evolved admissions policies, which did not overtly identify social origins or wealth as factors. This study will join Nicholas Lemann's The Big Test, on the origins of the SAT, as required reading for those interested in the idea of meritocracy in America and the idea that truly merit-based access to higher education is the engine of social mobility. Recommended for all collections.-Scott Walter, Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"This is a remarkable book....It is a staggering hidden
history." --Anthony Lewis "Jerome Karabel's marvelous study traces
the titanic struggles that defined -- and re-defined -- the Ivy
ideal....Utterly absorbing." --Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of
Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
"Vivid...electrifying...The Chosen is a refreshingly candid account
of the admissions madness at elite colleges." --Lani Guinier,
Harvard Law School "The Chosen is a fascinating study in American
cultural history." --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "An eye-opening
examination...Karabel writes clearly and well, and he has dug
deep." --Evan Thomas, Newsweek "An informed and fascinating account
of how America's elite universities have selected their student
bodies over the past 100 years." --Nathan Glazer, Professor
Emeritus of Sociology and Education, Harvard University "A
magisterial, thorough, and even-handed account of a vexed and
important issue." --Justin Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain and Walt Whitman "[A] tour de force of
investigative sociology . . . Anyone who wishes to understand the
shifting grounds of the American establishment should read The
Chosen, get shocked by the raw bigotries of the past, and accept
Karabel's challenge to rethink the meritocratic ideal." -- Todd
Gitlin, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia
University and author of The Sixties "This is a powerful book,
which is richly documented, academically authoritative, and
gracefully written...a remarkable combination of historical
scholarship and sociological analysis." -- David F. Labaree,
Stanford University "A remarkable history of the admissions process
of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton." --Malcolm Gladwell The New Yorker
"An epically scaled and scrupulously rendered history." --James
Traub, slate.com "Karabel's thorough and definitive look at elite
college admissions is fascinating . . . Karabel is a clear and
engaging writer." --David Brooks The New York Times Book Review
"The special value of The Chosen lies...in its stories, its...apt
statistics, and its analysis of backroom university politics."
--Jeffrey Kittay The Washington Post "Fascinating...The Chosen is a
monumental work of scholarship" --Charles Matthews San Jose Mercury
News "In vivid and electrifying prose, Karabel exposes the intimate
and occasionally scandalous social and political relationships that
marked college admissions at the Big Three throughout the twentieth
century. The Chosen is a refreshingly candid account of the
admissions madness at elite colleges, where merit often functioned
simply as a handmaiden to power." -- Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey
Professor at Harvard Law School and coauthor of The Miner's Canary
"Millions of Americans think of the Ivy League as a training ground
for the best and brightest. But for most of the twentieth century
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were more interested in sustaining the
aristocracy than in shaping the nation's intellectual elite. Jerome
Karabel's marvelous study traces the titanic struggles that
defined--and redefined--the Ivy ideal. An utterly absorbing account
of politics and privilege on America's most revered campuses." --
Kevin Boyle, National Book Award-winning author of Arc of Justice
"This is a remarkable book. Until you read it, you can have no real
idea how crudely these elite universities discriminated in
admissions -- against women, Jews, blacks, and others. It is a
staggering hidden history." --Anthony Lewis, former New York Times
columnist and author of Gideon's Trumpet "A magisterial and
even-handed account of a vexed and important issue." -- Justin
Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
and Walt Whitman
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