Class Dismissed

In this provocative new book, Richard A. Greenwald—a working-class kid from Queens turned historian, professor, and college dean—argues that we are at a fork in the road. The country can either move further into a two-tier higher education system divided by class and access, or we can stop talking naively about college as an engine of opportunity and start making it one. Class Dismissed leads with a discerning history of higher ed battles that still reverberate in the current times, whether over Reagan-era cultural attacks and budget cuts or veterans’ opportunities. Greenwald proceeds to expose the dangers of a system shaped by elitism and thoughtfully analyze how the needs of today’s working-class students and their schools are unmet and misunderstood—enlightening us on everything from costs, resource allocation, and job training to the implications of adjuncts, reputation, and MOOCs. With a fresh voice that stands apart from the perennial pontificators who typically dominate the public conversation on college, Greenwald reminds readers that it’s always been uncomfortable to talk openly and honestly about class. He warns that if we continue to dismiss where and how the mass of American students go to school rather than expand the debate over the future of higher education, we are destined to end up with a simulacrum of what college should be.