The British experience with liberal arts and education is reviewed, and reasons are given for the U.S. difficulty in nurturing the liberal arts. Two aspects of America's education are criticized: the scholar's detachment from society, and the constrictive framework of support for scholarship. (MSE)

Academics in both the industrial world and developing countries face funding declines, growing state intervention, public hostility, and corporate pressure. Simultaneously, they are experiencing internal wars over policy, curriculum, and nature of scholarly communities. In North America debates about academic freedom center on tenure and free…