William Deresiewicz was a professor at Yale until 2008. He is the author of the landmark essays "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education" and "Solitude and Leadership" and is a frequent speaker on campuses around the country. A contributing writer for The Nation and a contributing editor for The New Republic and The American Scholar, he is the author of A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter. Visit BillDeresiewicz.com.
"In Excellent Sheep, William Deresiewicz sets out to unnerve
the current and future college students of America (and their
parents). He succeeds brilliantly, with an indictment of elite
education that should launch a thousand conversations. Read this
book to remember what learning should be, and then pass it along to
the next sheep who should leave the flock behind." -- Emily
Bazelon, author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of
Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy
"This is a book of great importance to our society. It deserves to
transform our understanding of integrity and achievement and
success. William Deresiewicz is a genuine humanist with a profound
faith in the promise of democracy, and he has an uncommon gift for
wisdom without platitudes. Excellent Sheep is a withering
analysis of the transactional spirit that rules American education
and American life, and an inspiring example of a better ideal. A
true teacher speaks here. He has my admiration and my gratitude."
-- Leon Wieseltier
"William Deresiewicz's book is in and of itself a higher education,
and to read it is to learn what's a college for. The author is an
inspired teacher, and his lesson is of a truth sorely needing to be
told." -- Lewis Lapham
"William Deresiewicz's Excellent Sheep is a searing and
important critique of our morally bankrupt educational system. He
argues, correctly, that colleges and universities, awash in
corporate money and intend on churning out corporate managers and
conformists rather than scholars, have betrayed not only their
mission, but the students they purport to teach and by extension
the wider society. Independent thought is subversive, uncomfortable
and lonely. It requires us, as Deresiewicz points out, to challenge
and question reigning assumptions rather than kneel before them.
Deresiewicz's book is not so much a call for reform as for revolt."
-- Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, with
Joe Sacco, of Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt
"William Deresiewicz is one of America's best young public
intellectuals. He has written a passionate, deeply informed, and
searing critique of the way we are educating our young. Whether you
agree or disagree - and I found myself doing both - you must read
this book. It should spark a great debate on America's campuses and
beyond." -- Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World
"Excellent Sheep is likely to make...a lasting mark...for
three reasons. One, Mr. Deresiewicz spent 24 years in the Ivy
League, graduating from Columbia and teaching for a decade at
Yale....He brings the gory details. Two, the author is a striker,
to put it in soccer terms. He's a vivid writer, a literary critic
whose headers tend to land in the back corner of the net. Three,
his indictment arrives on wheels: He takes aim at just about the
entirety of upper-middle-class life in America.... Mr.
Deresiewicz's book is packed full of what he wants more of in
American life: passionate weirdness." -- Dwight Garner * The New
York Times *
"It might surprise the countless students competing for admission
to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford that they could be fighting for a
dubious prize. But in this probing indictment, a former Yale
professor accuses America's top universities of turning young
people into tunnel-visioned careerists, adept at padding their
resumes and filling their bank accounts but unprepared to confront
life's most important questions. . . . An urgent summons to a
long-overdue debate over what universities do and how they do it."
-- Bryce Christensen * Booklist (starred review) *
"Welcome to what is sure to be the most polarizing education and
parenting book since Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger
Mom." * Town & Country *
"This refreshingly barbed indictment of America's
prestige-education addiction reveals what college students are
really getting out of all that work, all that struggle, all that
stress - and all those tuition loans." * MORE Magazine *
"Excellent Sheep challenges parents to break from the herd
mentality, to question what we really want from our children, who
we really want them to be. The book filled me with both hope that
there could be a more authentic, creative way to raise a new
generation of thinkers--and with the courage to try to find it." --
Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter
"Deresiewicz's critique of America's most celebrated schools as
temples of mercenary mediocrity is lucid, sharp-edged, and
searching ... he poses vital questions about what college
teaches-and why." * Publishers Weekly *
"An unquestionably provocative book that hopefully leads to
productive debate." * Kirkus *
"Not only does Deresiewicz speak with candor about the ins and outs
of the educational hierarchy from an insiders point of view, but he
prompts some serious questions about the potential for reform and
what we as parents can do to encourage our children from a young
age to change the way that they're learning, and as a result, what
they take from the world in exchange. A much recommended read,
especially for those currently with or planning to have children."
-- Briana Burns * High Voltage *
"[A] good case that these colleges are failing in their most
essential mission: to help kids "build a self." * Mother Jones
*
"Provocative." * The Daily Beast *
"Anyone who cares about American higher education should ponder
this book." * The New York Times Book Review *
"Exceptionally enlightening." * Bowling Green Daily News *
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
