Seeking the North Star: Selected Speeches

by John Silber, Tom Wolfe (Foreword by)

Overview

Here are speeches, essays, and articles from them man who turned Boston Universityinto a major educational institution.

John Silber speaks as an educator, parent, philosophical leader, and political observer and participant (Ahead in the polls, he probably would have been elected Governor of Massachusetts had he not run afoul of a beloved media personality. The famous incident is recounted in high style in Tom Wolfe’s foreword).

He tackles issues including education at all levels, culture and the media, democracy and international affairs. Delivered from 1971 to 2012, the speeches offer his incisive reflections on the Vietnam War, Watergate, student activism of the seventies, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, developments in science and technology, the increasing power of the media, global corporations, and many other issues. His style is lively, crisp, and pointed, spiked with his acerbic wit and guided by an ongoing search for wisdom.

Mr. Silber was a model of probity and integrity in both his private and his public life, an intellectual pessimist and a congenital optimist. Even as he transformed Boston Universityfrom a sleepy and fast-declining “streetcar college,” he spoke out on topical issues and principles on which our human fulfillment and national identity depended. Inspiring many and infuriating some, his was a life that mattered and his voice was one worth listening to.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781567925074
Publisher:	David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date:	10/31/2013
Pages:	305
Sales rank:	975,371
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Tom Wolfe xi

Introduction Edwin J. Delattre xxxi

Preface 1

The Pollution of Time 5

A Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. 22

The Humanities, the Crucible of Higher Education 28

The Tremble Factor 32

The Thicket of Law and the Marsh of Conscience 40

Generations on Generations 52

The Myth of Overqualification 66

Democracy: Its Counterfeits and Its Promise 72

By the Rivers of Babylon: The Mission of the University 84

The Next Parish Over 93

The University and the Defense of Freedom 102

Stretching the Envelope 114

Seeking the North Star 119

Parents' Convocation 126

Multiculturalism True and False 135

Obedience to the Unenforceable 140

The Need for Honesty in Confronting History 150

Character Education East and West 158

Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On 169

"Drinking the Sun of Corinth and Reading the Marbles" 176

Procedure or Dogma: The Core of Liberalism 188

Roadblocks to Education Reform 204

Education and Spiritual Formation 229

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility 240

Life Is a Series of Surprises 263

Science vs. Scientism 269

The Choices Are Ours 280

Acknowledgments 291

Index 295

Editorial Reviews

03/10/2014
When Silber was appointed president of Boston University, it was a "streetcar college," parochial and overshadowed by other, more elite colleges that also sat upon the Charles River. That Silber transformed Boston University into the world-class research university it is today is only further testament to the steadfastness and vision on display in this collection of speeches spanning the years 1971 to 2012. Blessed with a rigorous mind and a strong sense of his place within history, Silber speaks on many of the formative issues and events of the latter half of the 20th century: the student movements, civil rights, Watergate, deconstructionism, liberalism, and educational reform. A Kantian philosopher before he turned to administrative work, Silber was, as Tom Wolfe describes him in his kinetic foreword, a "Stoic who would not assent to what was false and refused to flatter or bleach words." Making as many enemies as he did allies, Silber cut a bold path through his tenure at B.U. and beyond, returning time and again to a fundamental belief that education and traditional family values form the cornerstones of a healthy society. Though his thoughts seem outdated at times, Silber nevertheless comes across as a man of integrity and unwavering principle. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly