“What would happen if the academy lost its reverence for excellence and instead took on the virtues and methods of argumentation found in political life? Universities would lose their souls, as Anthony Kronman shows in this brilliant book. He weaves together legal and intellectual history, a humane concern for students, and a love of the life of the mind to diagnose the core confusion undermining the confidence and coherence of the academy. The book is beautifully written, it is erudite yet accessible, and it is essential for any discussion of the future of higher education—or of liberal democracy.”
— Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind 

“Brilliant and exceedingly provocative. This book is bound to infuriate many, but it’s the wakeup call this country needs for an urgent conversation about the role of colleges and universities in a rapidly changing America. You may not agree with this book, but it will open your mind.”
— Amy Chua, Yale Law professor and New York Times bestselling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations

“An extraordinary book that is sure to launch many impassioned conversations. Kronman brings erudition, eloquence, and candor to bear on the most controversial subjects roiling our campuses. He unflinchingly defends elitism in academia, maintaining that doing so is essential not only to the maintenance of scholarly standards, but to the strengthening of democratic values. His arguments are brilliant, arresting, memorable. Although I do not agree with all that he wrote, I gained instruction on nearly every page.”
— Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School professor and author of For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

"An impassioned defense of the humanities."—Robert Messenger, Wall Street Journal

"Kronman . . . shows how colleges, in abandoning the profound questions that have perplexed philosophers and writers throughout human history, have betrayed their students, depriving them of disciplined rumination before they're caught up in the urgent business of adult life. In Education's End, he writes that in emphasizing the secular, professors offer no recognition of the spirit and spiritual values."—Washington Times

"Kronman argues his case passionately. His discussion of the transformation of American higher education over the last century and a half is most illuminating and many of his observations about our current educational malaise are directly on target, especially his analysis of the mania over 'diversity.'"—George Leef, NationalReview.com

"In Education's End Kronman succeeds remarkably well, even movingly, in conveying the intellectual and spiritual joy that a serious student can find by participating in the 'great conversation.' . . . His anguish over the plight of the humanities comes through with persuasive clarity. So does his fresh critique of the unanticipated damage wrought by the research model that undergirds today's universities."—Ben Wildavsky, Commentary

"Education's End is less sensational than most volumes on higher education, but no less important. Anthony Kronman . . . hasn't merely produced another despairing account of academic shortcomings; instead, Education's End explains why colleges have ended up in such bad shape. Kronman argues that universities, especially their humanities departments, have actively made themselves irrelevant—and he documents just how they've don it. They've done it by wittingly giving up on the meaning of life."—Liam Julian, The Weekly Standard