Download or read book The Higher Learning in America: The Annotated Edition written by Thorstein Veblen and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-06 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Veblen's insights into the American university system at the outset of the twentieth century are as provocative today as they were when first published. Insisting that institutions of higher learning should be dedicated solely to the disinterested pursuit of knowledge, he urged American universities to abandon commitments to extraneous pursuits such as athletics, community service, and vocational education. He also believed that the corporate model of governance--with university boards of trustees dominated by well-to-do businessmen and university presidents who functioned essentially as businessmen in academic dress--mandated unsavory techniques of salesmanship and self-promotion that threatened to reduce institutions of higher learning to the status of competitive business enterprises."--Publisher's Web site.