"If I were Cary's dean I'd fire him immediately." Stanley Fish "A report from the front lines, from the most influential president of the AAUP in the past fifty years." Jeffrey Williams, Carnegie Mellon University "In the midst of a torrent of threats to academic freedom in higher education, No University Is an Island arrives to tell us why to propose solutions. As Nelson makes clear, all of our freedoms depend on our ability to educate our students to be critical citizens. Everyone concerned about the future of freedom should read this book." Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union"Academic freedom, as imbedded in the customs and practices of institutions of higher education, is an essential ingredient of intellectual life. It ensures the remarkable progress in all disciplines and underpins the vast changes that have collectively defined the world in which we live.

It is difficult, if not impossible to imagine that the modern university could not exist, much less succeed, without it.Cary Nelson seeks to provide [guidance for the futureof academic freedom] in this engaging book that starts with the premise that academic freedom is under attack and that it needs "saving". The scholarship is extensive and makes several telling points." - Charles R. Middleton, Times Higher Education "Cary Nelson's book No University Is an Island brings together many of the different issues currently facing universities. While his main theme is academic freedom, he is able to locate this central educational value at the intersection of several interlocking forces: privatization, casualization, corporatization, and globalization.The greatest strength of Nelson's book is that it constantly returns to the idea that only the faculty working collectively can defend the university as a public good. By chiding some of his colleagues for focusing too much on their own careers, he makes a strong plea for all faculty members to take back their institutions, and by documenting cases of effective faculty resistance, Nelson provides a glimmer of hope in these dark times.

" - Huffington Post, August 2010.