11 Books That Trace the Contradictions Running Through Elite Higher Education

Discussions about higher education in America—and, more specifically, elite higher ed—tend to be polarized, rapidly leap-frogging between exposés of systemic corruption, hand-wringing over students’ politics, accusations of wokeness and uncritical defenses of institutional prestige. Yet these and other hyperbolic narratives do little to dissect the inner workings of modern universities as the complex, evolving ecosystems that they are. This reading list considers the college value proposition through the lens of institutional histories, present day sociological research, admissions trends and educational philosophy to offer a multifaceted examination of how some of the country’s most selective colleges ...