Bonfire of the Humanities

Bonfire of the Humanities Synopsis

This volume focuses on the relationship between the rise of the multi-media environment-television and electronic media-and the decline of the humanities in academia, the changing role of print literacy, and the disintegration of historical consciousness.

David Marc is as mad as hell about some things, and he's not going to take it any longer. He finds that most university humanities programs remain top-heavy with embittered careerists who would rather deny the evidence than admit that, with the rise and popular acceptance of mass media, their most cherished interests, their techniques, and skills have become archaic. New students are treated as if they read and write as often, and for the same purposes, as their counterparts before the rise of the television camera, telephone, and communications satellite. Professors get paid. Students receive diplomas. And yet, humanities courses are the joke of the campus.

In analyzing the decline of the humanities on college campuses, Marc covers a wide range of issues, including political correctness, the growing tolerance of academic cheating, and institutionalized grade inflation.