Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / William G. Bowen and Harold T. Shapiro -- Introduction: Change in the Humanities and Higher Education / Alvin Kernan -- 1. Democratization and Decline? The Consequences of Demographic Change in the Humanities / Lynn Hunt -- 2. Funding Trends in the Academic Humanities, 1970-1995: Reflections on the Stability of the System / John H. D'Arms -- 3. Ignorant Armies and Nighttime Clashes: Changes in the Humanities Classroom, 1970-1995 / Francis Oakley -- 4. Evolution and Revolution: Change in the Literary Humanities, 1968-1995 / Margery Sabin -- 5. Humanities and the Library in the Digital Age / Carla Hesse -- 6. The Practice of Reading / Denis Donoghue -- 7. "Beyond Method" / Gertrude Himmelfarb -- 8. Changing Epochs / Frank Kermode -- 9. The Pursuit of Metaphor / Christopher Ricks -- 10. The Demise of Disciplinary Authority / Louis Menand -- 11. Scholarship as Social Action / David Bromrich --

Appendix. Tables and Figures on B.A.s and Ph.D.s in the Humanities, 1966-1993.

This volume of specially commissioned original essays presents the thoughts of some of the most distinguished commentators within the American academy on the fundamental changes that have taken place in the humanities in the latter part of the twentieth century.

What the essays make clear, is that as the humanities have become less significant in American higher education, they have also been the scene of unusually energetic social, pedagogical, and intellectual changes. The essays do not center on whether the changes described have been for good or bad, or on what remedial actions might be taken to halt the decay of interest in the humanities, but on the nature and extent of the changes.

The authors have opinions, of course, but they have focused on areas - demographics, patronage, books - where it is possible, if not to be entirely objective, at least to be sufficiently factual to discuss the issues meaningfully.