After the Ivory Tower Falls by Will Bunch

According to Will Bunch AFTER THE IVORY TOWER FALLS “has been at least fifteen years in the making” and that thoughtful reflection and exploration is readily apparent. Bunch, national opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, analyzes the state of higher education, specifically, “How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics—and How to Fix It.” He offers a unique perspective (how many of us have a grandmother who owned a college?) and is adept at employing storytelling (examples include the history of Midstate College in Peoria; the first veteran to take advantage of the G.I. Bill; or Bunch’s time embedded at Kenyon College in Gambier). Bunch makes a sometimes emotional but convincing argument that “a ladder greased with a snake oil called meritocracy has changed from joyous kids climbing higher than their parents to a panicked desperation to hang on to the slippery middle rungs. And that even at the polluted top, neither bewildered parents nor stressed out graduates are quite sure what they’ve just bought for all that cash (or, increasingly, a mountain of debt).” I have been quoting heavily because his narrative is so eloquent and filled with vivid imagery. In another example, he describes his “belief that a half century of bad decisions and generational change had sliced America into fourths, like a lazy pizza cutter:” the Left Broke; the Left Out; the Left Behind; and the Left Perplexed. “Four groups [that] didn’t just have different world views, but literally waved different flags … [and] spoke different languages.” It would be very informative to have Will Bunch, George Packer (Last Best Hope), and even Raj Chetty (“Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty”) debate divisions like these. Bunch acknowledges the threat to democracy and proposes a massive national service program. AFTER THE IVORY TOWER FALLS received a starred review from Kirkus ("a must-read”) and was reviewed positively this week in The New York Times. Highly recommended.