The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality), by Errol Morris A one-sided account of a conflict between an eminent professor and an Oscar-winning film-maker is both upbeat and challenging, finds Howard Segal By Howard Segal 5 July
American Academic Cultures: A History of Higher Education, by Paul H. Mattingly The US university system has a complex and often misunderstood past, says Howard P. Segal By Howard Segal 14 December
A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education, by David F. Labaree Book of the week: Howard Segal on an ‘appreciation’ of an unwieldy creature that is the envy of the world By Howard Segal 25 May
You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future, by Jonathon Keats Howard Segal on an optimistic visionary who never quite achieved the utopian communities he envisioned By Howard Segal 4 August
A tale of two campuses: US public universities recruiting more out-of-state students There have been radically different responses to Massachusetts’ and Maine’s attempts to bring in students from further afield, explains Howard Segal By Howard Segal 22 June
The Wrong Hands: Popular Weapons Manuals and Their Historic Challenges to a Democratic Society, by Ann Larabee Howard P. Segal on a brilliant study exploring the conflict between free speech and instruction guides that may be used for violence By Howard Segal 5 November
Dispatches from Dystopia: Histories of Places Not Yet Forgotten, by Kate Brown Howard Segal admires the travelogue of a self-confessed ‘professional disaster tourist’ covering a variety of global wastelands By Howard Segal 3 September
Celebrity speakers: putting money where their mouths are In the US, the cost of paying for expensive commencement speeches is diverting funds from where they’re most needed, says Howard Segal By Howard Segal 23 July
