No book ever written has provided such a penetrating description of the modern research university or offered such insightful comments on its special tensions and problems. Anyone wishing to understand the American research university--past, present, and future--must begin with a careful reading of this book. -- Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University Still the finest introduction available to one of America's most remarkable and least understood inventions: the research university. Probably the most learned, witty, and indiscrete book ever written by a university president, yet still wise in a way that stands the test of time. -- Christopher Jencks, Northwestern University An updated classic written by one of the legendary figures in American higher education. Each new edition has contained important and accurate predictions. The fourth edition will be no exception. -- Henry Rosovsky, Harvard University

America's university president extraordinaire adds a new chapter and preface to The Uses of the University, probably the most important book on the modern university ever written. This summa on higher education brings the research university into the new century.

The multiversity that Clark Kerr so presciently discovered now finds itself in an age of apprehension with few certainties. Leaders of institutions of higher learning can be either hedgehogs or foxes in the new age. Kerr gives five general points of advice on what kinds of attitudes universities should adopt. He then gives a blueprint for action for foxes, suggesting that a few hedgehogs need to be around to protect university autonomy and the public weal.

"The Uses of the University has been the single most influential book on the American research university. Kerr, who was president of the University of California, Berkeley, during the tumult of the Free Speech Movement, gave three lectures at Harvard in 1963 defining the role of the emerging "multiversity." New layers were added to the text in 1972, 1982, and again in 1994; all are included in this edition." - Books and Culture: A Christian Review