Description: Throughout his long and prolific career, Edward Shils brought an extraordinary knowledge of academic institutions to discussions about higher education. The Calling of Education features Shils's most illuminating and incisive writing on this topic from the last twenty-five years of his life. The first essay, "The Academic Ethic", articulates the unique ethical demands of the academic profession and directs special attention to the integration of teaching and research. Other pieces, including Shils's renowned Jefferson lectures, focus on perennial issues in higher learning: the meaning of academic freedom, the connection between universities and the state, and the criteria for appointing individuals to academic positions.

Edward Shils understood the university as a great symphonic conductor comprehends the value of each instrument and section, both separately and in cooperation. The Calling of Education offers Shils's insightful perspective on problems that are no less pressing than when he first confronted them.

"No book could serve as a better argument for the uses of the liberal arts. Shils's writing illuminates what a university education and environment should be able to produce.... This book is the next best thing to being able to study with Shils himself". -- Mary Lefkowitz, Author of Not Out of Africa

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