President Eisenhower originally included "academic" in the draft of his oft-quoted speech on the military-industrial complex. Giroux tells why Eisenhower saw the academy as part of the famous complex--and how his warning was vitally prescient for 21st-century America. In his gripping journalistic style, Giroux details the sweeping post-9/11 assault being waged on the academy by militarization, corporatization, and right-wing fundamentalists who increasingly view critical thought itself as a threat to the dominant political order. He brings to light surprising details of how universities are pulled into the machinations of the national security state. Giroux defends the university as one of the few public spaces left capable of raising important questions and educating students to be critical and engaged participants in democracy.

Introduction; Chapter 1 Arming the Academy; Chapter 2 Marketing the University; Chapter 3 The New Right-Wing Assault on Higher Education; Chapter 4 Breaking the Chains;