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BOOK REVIEWS 

Bowen, Howard R. The State of the Nation 
and the Agenda for Higher Education. San 
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982. 212p. 
$13.95. LC 81-20746. ISBN 0-87589-
515-8. 
Howard R. Bowen is R. Stanton A very 

Professor of Economics and Education at 
the Claremont Graduate School. A former 
chief academic officer of Grinnell College, 
the University of Iowa, and Claremont 
University Center, he is a distinguished 
senior economist who, of late, has turned 
his attention increasingly to the eco-
nomics of higher education. Bowen offers 
a thoughtful appraisal of both the nation 
and of American higher education in his 
book, accompanied by an ambitious long-
term agenda for an expanding societal role 
for universities and colleges. 

It is a relatively short book-eight chap-
ters, comprising 155 pages, with extensive 
statistical appendixes providing summary 
data in support of the author's assessment 
of the economic, social, and educational 
condition of the nation. Among his major 
conclusions are that the period since 1950 
has been one of extraordinary economic 
and social progress that can be related di-
rectly to the postwar expansion of Ameri-
can higher education. Although access to 
the university has increased greatly over 
the last three decades, a substantial por-
tion of the population remains inade-
quately educated. 

America, Bowen writes, must begin to 
address a set of major unresolved domes-
tic and international problems in the eco-
nomic, social, and political spheres. Our 
collective failure to date to deal effectively 
with issues ranging from disarmament to 
drug abuse can be attributed at least in 

part to the decline of an underlying set of 
common values II that actuate the eco-
nomic and political system." Given the di-
minishing influence of family, church, 
and workplace, Bowen looks to higher ed-
ucation as potentially "the premier place 
in our society that is capable of effective 
leadership and sustained independent ef-
fort in the realm of values." He calls for a 
restoration of the balance between liberal 
and vocational education. "The need," he 
urges, "is to restore and extend the an-
cient ideal of the well-educated man or 
woman who is both broadly learned and 
imbued with social responsibility.'' The 
university should reassert its historic pri-
mary mission, "to transmit worthy values 
to the people who ·in turn will guide the 
government and the economy toward the 
conditions of a good society.'' 

Bowen's book, however, is neither ana-
ive analysis nor a simplistic prescription 
for educational reform, and any effort to 
summarize this eloquent and persuasive 
philosophical essay inevitably does a seri-
ous injustice to both the book and its au-
thor. The tone is consistently candid 
("most institutions ... live or die accord-
ing to their ability to attract students"), re-
alistic ("to achieve widespread interna-
tional understanding would call for more 
than tinkering with the curriculum''), and 
temperate ("stating the ideals is, of 
course, not the same as achieving them, 
but it is a beginning"). 

Stating the ideals is a potentially impor-
tant new beginning for American higher 
education, or (more accurately perhaps) a 
timely revival of a central academic philo-
sophical tradition of liberal learning and 
humanistic values that can be traced 

183 



184 College & Research Libraries 

through Adler, Hutchins, and Whitehead 
to Mill, Newman, Bacon, Aristotle, and 
Plato. While the times may appear unpro-
pitious for new ventures, the obligation of 
educators, Professor Bowen correctly re-
minds us, is not to "supinely accept the 
present situation as permanent but . . . 
[to] continually present new long-range 
possibilities to the public and their lead-
ers." 

This book is about what higher educa-
tion could potentially become and about 
what it could potentially contribute to 
American society. As such, it is a welcome 
contrast to much of the current literature 
of academic planning, and recommended 
reading for all who have a serious concern 
for the future of the university.-Thomas J. 
Galvin, School of Library and Information Sci-
ence, University of Pittsburgh. 

[Editor's note: This book recently re-
ceived the Frederick W. Ness Book Award 
for the outstanding publication of the year 
on a subject dealing with the liberal arts, 
from the Association of American Col-
leges.] 

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Goodrum, Charles A. and Dalrymple, 
Helen W. The Library of Congress. 2d ed. 
Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1982. 
318p. $25 cloth, $10.95 paper. LC 82-
8457. ISBN 0-86531-303-2 cloth; 0-86531-
497-7 paper. 
The first edition of this work was written 

solely by Goodrum and published as part 
of the Praeger Library of U.S. Govern-
ment Departments and Agencies series. A 
number of changes at the Library of Con-
gress, including the sizable reorganization 
effected in 1977 under the direction of Li-
brarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin, 
obliged Goodrum and coauthor Helen W. 
Dalrymple to issue a revised and updated 
version of the 1974 work. The result is a 
pleasing and useful account of the Library 
of Congress, the world's "largest center 
for information storage" (Introduction). 

In an unobtrusive and easy writing 
style, the authors structure their narrative 
in four parts. Part one traces the history of 
LC from its beginnings to the present, in-
cluding a chapter on its current compo-
nents. We are told of its major units ("six 
great empires") within which "eighty-
five independent operations" function; 
an organizational chart provides guidance 
through the maze. Part two describes the 
internal processes: acquisitions, control, 
and research services. Here the authors 
wax eloquent about the treasures to be 
found in the manuscript, geography, and 
map collections, as well as other divisions 
and collections. There are informative dis-
cussions on the importance of gifts, the 
copyright deposit procedures, the awe-
some responsibilities of the Congressional 
Research Service, the famous "K classifi-
cation" of the law library, services to the 
blind and physically handicapped, and 
the several ''glamour'' collections and ac-
tivities, such as music, poetry, and the 
John F. Kennedy Center for Performing 
Arts Library. 

Part three addresses the problems and 
tensions that arise from LC' s efforts to 
serve three demanding clients: the Con-
gress, the library profession, and the 
scholarly research world . The authors 
wryly observe that these groups "barely 
tolerate each other at best, and at worst, 
they resent each other bitterly.'' Dis-