A01=Lee C. Bollinger
academia
Author_Lee C. Bollinger
authoritarianism
Category=JNK
Category=JNM
Category=JP
Category=JPHV
Category=JPQ
college
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
first amendment
free thought
freedom of speech
freedom of the press
higher education
institutions
knowledge
professors
responsibility
social mission
teachers
teaching
united states
Product details
- ISBN 9781324124313
- Weight: 270g
- Dimensions: 147 x 218mm
- Publication Date: 20 Jan 2026
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The American university is facing an unprecedented assault from the president of the United States.
Defences of the university usually emphasise the practical benefits it offers to society such as highly skilled graduates, scientific research and technological breakthroughs. Bollinger offers a more original account, revealing how the structure of the university contributes to the success of the American system, and why that structure is both impossible to re-create and vulnerable to outside attack. The fundamental mission of the university is to enhance knowledge but this is not merely a high-minded idea. It is, as Bollinger demonstrates, a notion rooted deeply in the Constitution. Bollinger argues that, with the press diminished, the university remains the only source of truth-seeking for those who still believe in democracy. The stakes are self-evident: the university must be defended if the American experiment is to continue.
Lee C. Bollinger is an American legal scholar and educator who served as the nineteenth president of Columbia University, from 2002 to 2023. He is currently president emeritus and the Seth Low Professor of the University. He also served as the president of the University of Michigan from 1997 to 2002. A renowned expert on the First Amendment and freedom of speech and press, he lives in New York City.
