“We cannot be blithe about democracy’s prospects. It is incumbent upon our fellow citizens and our bulwark institutions to look unflinchingly and intensely at how we came to this place where our democracy feels as if it is coming undone. There is no better place to start this conversation, this self-reflection, than the university.” – page 250

Johns Hopkins president Ronald J. Daniels’ recent book, What Universities Owe Democracy, examines the relationship between universities and liberal democracy in America, arguing that colleges and universities are essential to the flourishing of democracy but have moved away from this role in the past couple decades and have a responsibility to recover this function. Daniels details how universities have contributed to democracy in four areas: social mobility, civic education, stewardship of facts, and cultivating pluralism. In addition to examining history, Daniels suggests how universities can recover the centrality of these roles in the present moment. This book is an important contribution to the conversation about the purpose of higher education, and is available for free via Project Muse.