Veblen, Mills, and the Decline of Criticism

If these are, as ever, times that try men’s souls, most academics will soon see to it that the trial is carried on at a safe distance from the American campus. And the consequences will be most damaging in the area where it is least seemly and most advanced: in the social sciences.

The institutionalization of aloofness will not be halted unless it is understood, and unless strong alternatives are offered. That is a large task; it may already be a hopeless one. But the task is worth attempting, not just because the academy contains remnants of a worthier tradition, but because many students are almost desperate in their eagerness to explore the nature, and mitigate the intensity, of today’s troubles. Students cannot do ...