Harvard Rules: The Struggle for the Soul of the World's Most Powerful University

by Richard Bradley

Book Overview

It is the richest, most influential, most powerful university in the world, but at the beginning of 2001, Harvard was in crisis. Students complained that a Harvard education had grown mediocre.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060568542
• ISBN13: 9780060568542
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

An interesting account

This is one of the first examinations of the Summers presidency at Harvard. The book examines the results of Laurence Summers, former treasury secretary and brilliant economist, when he served as president of Harvard. Summers was known for daring to oppose that anti-Israel lobby at Harvard and divestment. He was known for his many verbal battles with such icons as Cornell West. He was also known for critiquing many of the political courses at Harvard that did not seek to educate but to indoctrinate. He was also criticized for accepting money for a sheikh connected to Islamism and allowing Harvard's name to be purchased by the United Arab Emirates, an apartheid state. But for all his controversy he may have been the greatest president of Harvard in the last thirty years. This book is partially a critique and partially a discussion of the ins and outs of the controversies surrounding him. He was critiqued so much because he tried to rock the boat at Harvard and he dared to question whether it was still providing the best education. Although this book might be a little heavy handed in claiming that Harvard students are groomed to run the world, it is an interesting examination of the role of Summers at the prestigious University. Seth J. Frantzman

Smart, Thorough, Timely

This is an outstanding book. It covers the first three years of Larry Summers' Harvard presidency and really takes you inside the university. Harvard Rules treats the issues of higher education seriously, but it also conveys all the drama that goes on behind-the-scenes at Harvard. I particularly liked the way Bradley treated the people involved as characters, so that the book reads almost like a novel, which is not what you'd typically expect of a book about higher education. Like him or hate him, Larry Summers is a fascinating man, and this book provides grist for both sides of the mill. If you're interested in Harvard or higher education, this is a must read. But if you're interested in just a good read about ambition and power, I'd recommend Harvard Rules for that, too.

University Life

I've never been a professor or a college administrator. But I've known several of them socially. To a person they have absolutely loathed their fellow professors and this was minor when compared to the abject hatred they have felt for the school administration. The struggle going on at Harvard, as detailed in this book, has to be considered to be very amusing. Whatever an outsider president said or does at a place like Harvard is going to be completely picked apart by the staff, the press, the student body, and probably by the janitors who don't even speak English. The universities are far more liberal than the rest of American society. They are the absolute temples of Political Correctness. When the president of Harvard said that perhaps the reason fewer women succeed in math and science may be due to gender differences, the world fell in. Note he said "MAY" as in something to talk about, something to research, hopefully to reach a definitive conclusion. But no, the decisions are already made, there is no room for discussion, no need to do research. Here in the supposed center of intellectual freedom, open minded research, etc. etc. In the end, the president apologized, and only the resentment remains. This book is an unauthorized investigation of the reign of the current president of Harvard. While I can't say that the book is an attack on him, it certainly isn't very sympathetic.

Harvard Secrets

If you want to understand what's behind the current faculty uprising at Harvard, this is a "must read" expose. The Harvard corporation is the powerful committee that selects the Harvard president in secret, and has minimal contact with the faculty. (Amazingly, Robert Rubin, a member of the Harvard corporation, was quoted last month as thinking that there was "no substantial faculty discontact" with Summers' leadership!) So if you're an alum, and thinking of becoming a donor, or if you are simply curious, this is the book to read. It's fast-paced and attention grabbing.