Revised papers originally presented at a conference held in 1988 at Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

All but two essays previously published as vol. 89, no. 1 (winter 1990) of the South Atlantic quarterly.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : The public, the press, and the professors -- Humanities for the future : reflections on the Western culture debate at Stanford / Mary Louise Pratt -- The extraordinary convergence : democracy, technology, theory, and the university curriculum / Richard A. Lanham -- Teach the conflicts / Gerald Graff -- Cult-lit : Hirsch, literacy, and the "national culture" / Barbara Herrnstein Smith -- The master's pieces : on canon formation and the African-American tradition / Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- Liberal arts education and the struggle for public life : dreaming about democracy / Henry A. Giroux -- Pedagogy in the context of an antihomophobic project / Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick -- Serious watching / Alexander Nehamas -- From ivory tower to Tower of Babel/ / Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich -- The emergence of the humanities / Bruce Kuklick -- The academy and the public / Phyllis Franklin -- Classics and canons / George A. Kennedy -- Two cheers for the cultural Left / Richard Rorty -- The common touch, or, one size fits all / Stanley Fish -- Against nostalgia : reflections on our present discontents in American higher education / Francis Oakley.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.