College presidents lead taxing and complex, though enormously fulfilling and rewarding, lives. The story that unfolds in College Presidents Reflect: Life in and out of the Ivory Tower is fashioned from the perspectives of over two-dozen retired former college presidents. The over-their-shoulders view we get from these men and women who have sat on the presidential perch provides an unprecedented view of the office, of the pathways to presidencies, and of the ways in which tenures conclude when presidents decide, at times pushed, to exit. Does anything after leaving office compare with the status and regard regularly accorded presidents? How do their bully pulpits change from the power of the presidency to life? What are the high successes and unforeseen regrets born out of time in the office? From their journeys we learn lessons about leadership. We hear about how one gets into the presidency, planned or not. There is only one true source of insight and reflection about these issues and that is those who have been there, these former college presidents.

In fourteen years as a college president-first at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and then for nine years at Amherst-Tom Gerety taught and worked with some of the nation's finest under-graduate students. During this time he also had an opportunity to regularly address these students, and thousands of others, through public speeches on topics of national, institutional and personal interest. This book collects nearly three dozen of these speeches-on topics ranging from teaching to residential life, from Shakespeare to the liberal arts, from war to love, and loss. Together, these essays offer insight into one of our nation's leading college presidents, and into the lives of American college students.

Contentious debates over the benefits—or drawbacks—of a liberal education are as old as America itself. From Benjamin Franklin to the Internet pundits, critics of higher education have attacked its irrelevance and elitism—often calling for more vocational instruction. Thomas Jefferson, by contrast, believed that nurturing a student’s capacity for lifelong learning was useful for science and commerce while also being essential for democracy. In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America’s long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education. Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. DuBois’s humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington’s educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams’s emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey’s calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks. Roth explores these arguments (and more), considers the state of higher education today, and concludes with a stirring plea for the kind of education that has, since the founding of the nation, cultivated individual freedom, promulgated civic virtue, and instilled hope for the future.

This set is both a history of the global women's rights movement and an expert analysis of where that movement is and should be heading in the future. Feminism and Women's Rights Worldwide is both a richly detailed history of the women's movement around the globe and a road map for the next stages in the ongoing fight for gender equality. In this landmark three-volume set, a remarkable team of contributors draws on a wealth of contemporary research to discuss pivotal events, issues, and controversies related to the global women's movement, with chapters addressing reproductive rights, sexual slavery, harassment, forced marriage, mortality in birthing, domestic violence and rape, job discrimination, pay inequities, women in leadership positions, and other crucial issues. Together these volumes offer today's generation the real story of feminism and a call to action for the next wave of advocacy in education, religion, politics, the military, personal relationships, the workplace, and the home.