This monograph, based on college transcripts of 10,700 students included in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), examines how culturally literate is the generation that is now in its thirties and what people in that generation studied that exposed them to different cultures, societies, and intellectual traditions. Findings determined that the amount of time spent on studying standard college subjects dwarfed the amount of time spent on studying all other cultural information combined. Also, exposure to cultural literacies other than that of western societies was extremely limited, and the bulk of this exposure to western traditions was confined to introductory-level courses. Additionally, the extent to which a student was exposed to cultural information was largely determined by his/her major. Recommendations are provided to students on how to approach, judge, and act upon their academic choices in light of the many requests and requirements from commissions, accreditation bodies, and faculty senates to study certain subjects. Contains 66 references. (GLR)

"Hezel has written an authoritative and engaging narrative of [a] succession of colonial regimes, drawing upon a broad range of published and archival sources as well as his own considerable knowledge of the region. This is a ‘conventional’ history, and a very good one, focused mostly on political and economic developments. Hezel demonstrates a fine understanding of the complicated relations between administrators, missionaries, traders, chiefs and commoners, in a wide range of social and historical settings." —Pacific Affairs "The tale [of Strangers in Their Own Land] is one of interplay between four sequential colonial regimes (Spain Germany, Japan, and the United States) and the diverse island cultures they governed. It is also a tale of relationships among islands whose inhabitants did not always see eye-to-eye and among individuals who fought private and public battles in those islands. Hezel conveys both the unity of purpose exerted by a colonial government and the subversion of that purpose by administrators, teachers, islands, and visitors.... [The] history is thoroughly supported by archival materials, first-person testimonies, and secondary sources. Hezel acknowledges the power of the visual when he ends his book by describing the distinctive flags that now replace Spanish, German, Japanese, and American symbols of rule. the scene epitomizes a theme of the book: global political and economic forces, whether colonial or post-colonial, cannot erode the distinctiveness each island claims."—American Historical Review