Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities

Abstract

In Literature Lost, John Ellis subjects the fashionable notions that now dominate college curricula in the humanities to a careful historical and logical analysis. The result is a devastating critique and a comprehensive rebuttal of the claims made for the reigning orthodoxy. [Ellis is] not the first . . . to express dismay at [the extraordinary changes that have come over the teaching of the humanities in American universities]; what distinguishes him is the clarity of his perceptions, and his willingness not merely to deplore the new trends but-faithful to an academic tradition he believes to be in serious danger-to subject them to disinterested inquiry.-Frank Kermode, Atlantic Monthly An eloquent, passionate plea for the 'wider world' to engage itself with academia and bring it to its senses, lest literature and the arts be trampled beyond recognition by the armies of the alienated professoriat.-Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World A thorough and masterfully rational study of the issues behind the conflict.-John W. Aldridge, Wall Street Journal [An] exceptionally persuasive book . . . which ought to be required reading for any student about to enroll in a literature course.-Merle Rubin, Baltimore Sun

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