Ivory Tower: The War for Harvard and the Future of Higher Education
Jun 2027 · Sold by Penguin
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416
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About this ebook
From James B. Stewart, the New York Times bestselling co-author of Unscripted and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a deeply reported investigation into Harvard University, what happened when the Trump administration declared war on it, and the epic battle between the old guard and new money for control over a fabled institution
Harvard University, a symbol of excellence and prestige for nearly 400 years, has been under attack. The assault, by no means limited to the right-wing attacks on DEI, or the lawsuits brought by the Trump administration over billions of dollars in Federal funding, has exposed deep fault lines within academia and American society at large. The Harvard presidency is arguably the most powerful and influential position in academia, not least because it comes with huge sway over the university’s vast $68 billion endowment. Beginning with the controversial tenure of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard, James Stewart goes behind the scenes with power brokers and students alike to reveal how Summers’s abrupt departure set the stage for a progressive backlash when Drew Faust was hired as his replacement, and for the choice of Claudine Gay as the university’s first Black president. After Hamas attacked Israel, Republican Congresswoman and Harvard graduate Elise Stefanik led a Congressional inquiry into antisemitism on campus. As the controversy intensified, Gay was accused of plagiarism and forced to resign. But these events were only the preamble to the multiple lawsuits the second Trump administration would file against Harvard in the years to come, forcing Harvard into the impossible position of trying to defend academic freedom at the risk of losing crucial funding.
A propulsive, character-driven narrative, replete with bold-faced names, combining deep investigative reporting and breaking news, this will be the definitive account of an institution on the brink. Using Harvard as the prism, Stewart confronts some of the most entrenched and sensitive fault lines of our polarized age, as the countervailing forces of meritocracy, elitism, identity politics, and tradition bear down on higher education from all sides. At stake is not only the future of Harvard, America’s preeminent university, but the very idea of education itself, and the unending struggle for the soul of the nation.
Harvard University, a symbol of excellence and prestige for nearly 400 years, has been under attack. The assault, by no means limited to the right-wing attacks on DEI, or the lawsuits brought by the Trump administration over billions of dollars in Federal funding, has exposed deep fault lines within academia and American society at large. The Harvard presidency is arguably the most powerful and influential position in academia, not least because it comes with huge sway over the university’s vast $68 billion endowment. Beginning with the controversial tenure of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard, James Stewart goes behind the scenes with power brokers and students alike to reveal how Summers’s abrupt departure set the stage for a progressive backlash when Drew Faust was hired as his replacement, and for the choice of Claudine Gay as the university’s first Black president. After Hamas attacked Israel, Republican Congresswoman and Harvard graduate Elise Stefanik led a Congressional inquiry into antisemitism on campus. As the controversy intensified, Gay was accused of plagiarism and forced to resign. But these events were only the preamble to the multiple lawsuits the second Trump administration would file against Harvard in the years to come, forcing Harvard into the impossible position of trying to defend academic freedom at the risk of losing crucial funding.
A propulsive, character-driven narrative, replete with bold-faced names, combining deep investigative reporting and breaking news, this will be the definitive account of an institution on the brink. Using Harvard as the prism, Stewart confronts some of the most entrenched and sensitive fault lines of our polarized age, as the countervailing forces of meritocracy, elitism, identity politics, and tradition bear down on higher education from all sides. At stake is not only the future of Harvard, America’s preeminent university, but the very idea of education itself, and the unending struggle for the soul of the nation.
From James B. Stewart, the New York Times bestselling co-author of Unscripted and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a deeply reported investigation into Harvard University, what happened when the Trump administration declared war on it, and the epic battle between the old guard and new money for cont...
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About the author
James B. Stewart is the author of Unscripted, Deep State, Tangled Webs, Heart of a Soldier, Blind Eye, Blood Sport, and the blockbuster Den of Thieves. He is currently a columnist for The New York Times and a professor at Columbia Journalism School. In 1988, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading.
James B. Stewart is the author of Unscripted, Deep State, Tangled Webs, Heart of a Soldier, Blind Eye, Blood Sport, and the blockbuster Den of Thieves. He is currently a columnist for The New York Times and a professor at Columbia Journalism School. In 1988, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his report...
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