A. Bartlett Giamatti

A Free and Ordered Space

"Contributes a fresh voice to the debate over higher education in America, writing not about what we ought to know, but about why it's important to know." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

President of Yale University from 1978 to 1986 and before that professor of English at Yale, A. Bartlett Giamatti was one of the voices that most clearly articulated the role of the university in the modern world.

In twenty-four essays here, Mr. Giamatti explores the relationship of the university to government, industry, and the private sector. He defines the essence of liberal education, rooted in freedom, dedicated to learning for its own sake. He exposes the menace of ideologues of any stripe who would impose on the university a limiting political, religious, or social agenda. Throughout, Giamatti sets forth his commitment to an education that "will contantly test rather than impose the values it cherishes."

"Eloquent in support of the values of a liberal education, these esssays bespeak the product of such formation, a man at east with the cultural flow of past and present." —Publishers Weekly

"A rich and rewarding analysis. . . . [Giamatti] has issued a much-needed call for civility and reasoned discourse. . . . A pleasure to read." —James O. Freedman, president, Dartmouth College