Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class

The timing of my reading this book was fortuitous. I finished the book within a few days of my very moving experience of being at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for the tribute to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.[...]That event, in my opinion, represented Harvard at its best. Ross Gregory Douthat's moving memoir of his four years as an undergraduate student at the Ivy League's flagship institution paints a more complex and ambivalent picture of the university. There can be no doubt that Douthat loves his alma mater, but it clearly has been a tempestuous affair. I view this book as a love letter written by Douthat to a paramour who has not always been faithful, but to whom the author will nevertheless remain in lifelong thrall, despite his keen awareness of her failings.As I read this very balanced and insightful glimpse inside the kimono of Dame Harvard, I was reminded of Senator James Webb and of Winston Churchill! After he graduated from the United States Naval Academy, Jim Webb wrote "A Sense of Honor," a novel that was a thinly-veiled rendering of his four years as a midshipman - revealing the good, the bad and the ugly about life at Annapolis. The book was, in a phrase that Webb used in explaining to me his view of his controversial book, "A Valentine to a flawed lover."Churchill, in a 1947 reflection on the post-war state of the world and of the institution of democracy, made this memorable quotation: "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."Churchill's sardonic observation seems to capture perfectly Douthat's ultimate message: Harvard is the worst possible liberal arts environment - except for all the rest!I found his writing style to be compelling and vividly descriptive. I almost felt as if he had mounted a literary Web cam on his shoulder and allowed me to see the nooks and crannies of Harvard through his eyes. He is unblinking in his self-criticism and self-observation. I felt his ambivalence when he was simultaneously repulsed by the notion of auditioning to join of the prestige "final clubs" and disappointed when he did not make the final cut. These anachronistic societies continue to exert a strong gravitational pull on what passes for social life on campus. His personal anecdotes of the dating scene among the students at Harvard were revealing and fascinating - the sexual revolution demythologized and deconstructed.The saga of Winston, the homeless man who squatted in Douthat's dormitory for most of the school year, serves as a wonderful microcosm for taking a fresh look at the traditional "town vs. gown" tensions that are part of the fabric of most university towns. The juxtaposition of the disenfranchised camping out with the ruling class is rife with irony and pathos.The author makes a strong case for the need for reform of the Harvard Core Curriculum and grading system. He points out with wonderful specificity the folly of focusing on arcane minutia within an academic discipline, while failing to give students a broad grounding in the basics of that discipline.The struggle by students to help the university's custodial staff earn a living wage serves as a center of Douthat's consideration of the perennial tensions between the street liberals and the armchair liberals. As a conservative - a rare breed in the People's Republic of Cambridge - Douthat casts an outsider's bemused eye at his left-leaning compatriots and their internecine warfare.As one who has walked most of Harvard's vast campus and who spends time with many friends who are Harvard alumni, I found this book to be a valuable read. I recommend enthusiastically. Douthat currently works as an editor at the Atlantic Monthly.Enjoy!Al

A prosecuting attorney might be able to use Privilege as evidence to open up a criminal investigation. And no, I'm not even slightly guilty of employing hyperbolic rhetoric. Ross Gregory Douthat's book is a bombshell. He describes Harvard University as an empire of moral corruption. President Larry Summers and the rest of its top officials may readily remind you of Tony Soprano and his crew. Grade inflation is the norm. It was "easy for my classmates and me to believe, consciously or unconsciously, that the classroom was just another resume-padding opportunity" adds the author. "Look, I can't afford a B in this class if I want to get into law school, people say before marching off to beg a teaching fellow for a boost into the B+/A- range," points out the author. Later on the same page, Douthat refers to a professor who openly says that "If you want to fail someone, you have to be prepared for a very long, painful battle with the higher echelons of the administration." People have been sent to prison for doing far less. Why are the so-called elites able to get away with such outrageous behavior? Where is Eliot Spitzer when you really need him?Does Harvard hate America? According to Douthat this allegedly elite university didn't even "offer a single class on the American Revolution during my four years at harvard." A typical Harvard man supposedly knows more about porn stars like Jenna Jameson than "the chronology of the Civil War." Douthat himself candidly admits to pulling a fast one on Harvard professor Catherine Corman. He deliberately wrote pure gibberish in a paper he presented to her, and was rewarded with the standard A! This book should not be read by those easily angered and possessing minimal ethical standards. Is the author accurately informing us concerning his experiences at Harvard? Could Douthat be guilty of exaggerating? Well, let's put this way. If even half of what he says is true---Harvard University is little more than a scam operation. And yet, Harvard is still among the very best that America has to offer. Isn't that a frightening thought? Can you imagine what the worst schools must be like? I hope that Privilege is a best seller. This book can do a lot of good. It must not be ignored. There's simply too much at stake. Whether we like it or not, Harvard is an overwhelming influential institution. The former CEO of General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan, once declared that what is good for his company was good for the overall country. In many respects, the same can said about Harvard University.I also strongly urge everyone to read Murray Sperber's excellent "Beer and Circus." This fine work readily compliments "Privilege." Spreber reminds us that the liberals with all their silly deconstructionist nonsense are not the only ones responsible for the decline in today's universities. We must not overlook the damage caused by the conservatives who encourage grade inflation to protect unqualified athletes. Harvard doesn't even have a major sports program. Let's be fair, how many liberals attend these athletic contests?

I read this book over the past weekend and it gets my absolute highest, six star recommendation. I am sure it will wind up as one of my favorite one or two books of the year. Don't think of it as some dry tome giving postmodernism a kick. It's not that. It's really a fun, current, personal and thoughtful college memoir with terrific writing. Think of it as the best Ivy League memoir since Prozac Nation (though actually, it's much better than Prozac Nation).The book kind of has two aspects. First, the book is about the culture of the modern university. So it involves political dialogue on campus, academic standards, the ideology of postmodernism, the culture of irony, grade inflation and attitudes toward sex, diversity and political correctness. Douthat's discussion of these issues is always rooted in real situations with real people involved, so the discussions are not dry at all. This aspect of the book is a very interesting survey of the key issues on campus today. It is specifically about Harvard but the observations are applicable to almost any major US university.Then there is a much more personal story about an individual, an outsider really, growing up in the social environment of the American elite in the 90's and 2000's, pre and immediately post 9/11, which yields a fabulous mix of privilege, competition, disappointment and elation, much of which is relatable to anyone who has been through that time of life and all of which is fascinating.

This book gives a good inside into a life of Harvard students.It shows how wealth matters and that some people want the elite education for others it's something their parents want them to have.It's a must read if you plan on going to Harvard or any other elite universities.