The Inequality Machine: How College Divides Us

by Paul Tough Narrated by Paul Tough

Overview

First published as The Years That Matter Most

From best-selling author Paul Tough, an indelible and explosive book on the glaring injustices of higher education, including unfair admissions tests, entrenched racial barriers, and crushing student debt. Now updated and expanded for the pandemic era.

When higher education works the way it's supposed to, there is no better tool for social mobility-for lifting young people out of challenging circumstances and into the middle class and beyond. In reality, though, American colleges and universities have become the ultimate tool of social immobility-a system that secures a comfortable future for the children of the wealthy while throwing roadblocks in the way of students from struggling families.

Combining vivid and powerful personal stories with deep, authoritative reporting, Paul Tough explains how we got into this mess and explores the innovative reforms that might get us out. Tough examines the systemic racism that pervades American higher education, shows exactly how the SATs give an unfair advantage to wealthy students, and guides readers from Ivy League seminar rooms to the welding shop at a rural community college. At every stop, he introduces us to young Americans yearning for a better life-and praying that a college education might help them get there.

With a new preface and afterword by the author exposing how the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the higher education system anew.¿

Read by the author

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Indelible and extraordinary, a powerful reckoning with just how far we’ve allowed reality to drift from our ideals.” —Tara Westover, author of Educated: A Memoir, New York Times Book Review “Gorgeously reported. Vividly written. Utterly lucid. Paul Tough jumps skillfully between deeply engaging personal narratives and the bigger truths of higher education. The way he tells the stories of these students, it’s impossible not to care about them and get angry on their behalf.” —Ira Glass, host, This American Life “A stunning piece of work. The Years That Matter Most is ostensibly about higher education, about the college experience—and on that level, it’s a completely absorbing narrative with some very surprising, trenchant analysis. But it’s also a lot more than that. It’s a book about class in America. It’s a book about social mobility. And it’s a devastating report card on the American dream. It’s just a very special book.” —Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind (at WBUR’s CitySpace) “I’ve been begging everyone I know to read this book . . . It’s an utterly absorbing, utterly enlightening, utterly important book about classism in American higher education and the myth of meritocracy.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, in “By the Book,” New York Times Book Review “[Tough’s] urgent account combines cogent data and artful storytelling to show how higher education has veered from its meritocratic ideals to exacerbate society’s inequality.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice “Can’t recommend this book highly enough. Paul Tough lights a fuse that blows up every piety that American higher education—and indeed, the American upper class—tells itself about elite colleges.” —Dana Goldstein, New York Times (via Twitter) “What’s best about the book, a fruit of all the time Tough spent with his subjects, is that it humanizes the process of higher education. He has fascinating stories about efforts to remediate class disparities in higher education, some of which have succeeded and some of which may have made matters worse.” —Louis Menand, The New Yorker “A complex, essential book that asks an urgent question: Is our current higher education system designed to protect the privileged and leave everyone else behind? A fascinating, troubling read.” —Heidi Stevens, Chicago Tribune “Paul Tough’s important new book on the broken promises of higher education begins with a chapter that he succeeds in making as suspenseful as the prologue of any serial-killer novel and as heart-rending as the climax of an epic romance . . . Among his book’s many vital contributions are its portraits of schools and programs that model a better way.” —Frank Bruni, New York Times “A comprehensive, moving account of the inequalities that block many poor, minority and first-generation students from realizing the benefits of a college education.” —Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes “Paul Tough’s daring The Years That Matter Most forces us to unfold the suffering built into the creases of American higher education. It refuses to let us forget about the bodies and lives of real students. It should be necessary readi —

Kirkus Reviews

2019-05-22
A broad survey of the nature and role of the college experience.

In his latest book on education, Tough (How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, 2012, etc.) provides a common-sensical overview of the critical role the college years play in the course of the rest of life. It comes as little surprise that educational attainment, and the quality of that educational setting, is directly correlated with income. But what makes the author's exploration of elite schools intriguing is the class analysis he brings to his discussion of who is admitted to the top schools and how they do once they get there. If a student was prepped for the experience at a boarding school or a high-performing high school, then the transition is likely to be a lot less overwhelming than for a first-generation college-goer or a low-income student. The book is fueled by anecdotal evidence, putting readers in the shoes of students navigating the cultural disruptions and emotionally wrenching times that attend social mobility. Tough closely scrutinizes one of the determinants of the college pecking order: the SAT and ACT tests. Again, the results are hardly a surprise. If you can afford an expensive tutor who explains that the tests are designed to measure your ability to take the tests, not your math or verbal skills, you have an advantage. The admissions process, with its "market-based dictates of enrollment management," its predictive analytics and yield rates, has resulted in a situation where the admissions staff spend more time looking for low-performing, high-income students than the reverse: "That's how they make their budget." Still, while jobs available to those without a degree are routinely unstable and unreliable, the degree's wage premium these days is chiefly insurance against moving downward. Thankfully, the author includes inspiring anecdotes about low-income students, which lightens the mostly bleak-looking landscape. Though offering little groundbreaking news, Tough clearly shows that college placement remains mostly about wealth at the expense of a collective educational environment.

A good choice for aspiring college students and their parents.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175829144
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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