The agenda of "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," "commissioned," "funded," and "nurtured" by the U.S. Department of Education, is nothing less than an attempt to implement a "transformation" of America by "transform[ing] current academic norms about what counts as scholarship." The author suggests that people may remember this document as the federal government's official announcement of the death of true scholarship and independent thought. The aims of what is presented as civic education are stated clearly by project directors as well as the many other individuals who contributed in different capacities to producing the report. They are to "eliminate persistent inequalities, especially those in the United States determined by income and race, in order to secure the country's economic and civic future" and to address the "pressing issues" of "growing global economic inequalities, climate change and environmental degradation, lack of access to quality health care, economic volatility, and more," all deemed "transformations necessary for this generation." (Contains 4 footnotes.)