A Misremembered Past

Patrick J. Deneen’s “After the Interregnum” argues that genuine liberal education in the United States has been doomed for much longer than anyone thinks, and that its soi-disant defenders have in fact been complicit in its demise. Or so I think he argues. The clearest statement in his article regarding the emergence of our present predicament in higher education is this: “With the loss of religious affiliation and mission, American institutions of higher education have been on a steady and wholly predictable trajectory of rejecting the central relevance of the liberal arts in favor of those areas of study and research that expand human power.”1

I find myself fairly sympathetic to my friend Pat’s lament about the “trajectory” he describes, while I am less keen to endorse his analysis, or his implied prescription. Let me explain.