Books by Stephen J. Nelson

This book examines the life-long career of John Kemeny as a teacher, educator, and president. Nelson presents a portrait of his leadership at Dartmouth College during the tumultuous times of the late 1960s and 1970s and his resolute commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, equity, and justice.

This book presents the issues, controversies, and key players that formed and enabled the American college and university to endure as a critical institution of the nation and society. Nelson examines contested issues and concerns in the academy such as the role and position of religion; the place and value of the liberal arts; the threat of disunity and balkanization; the ideological contentions and fights for control; the effect of politics and ideologies on its future as an institution; its role as a critic and servant of society; and its promotion of academic freedom, free speech, and liberty. This overview, combined with Nelson's examination of the historical dramas, influential political forces, and stories of key personalities, provides a nuanced understanding of the evolution of the academy that scholars of Education, American History, and Philosophy will appreciate.

College presidents lead taxing and complex, though enormously fulfilling and rewarding, lives. The story that unfolds in College Presidents Reflect: Life in and out of the Ivory Tower is fashioned from the perspectives of over two-dozen retired former college presidents.

This book sheds light on how presidents conduct the influence and power of their office, especially in the use of their pulpits, how they navigate issues of political correctness, and how they hold the center of the university together, in contentious times and against competing ideological forces.

Regardless of the pressures and problems confronting colleges and universities today, they can ill afford to assume that the only essential qualities of those chosen to be presidents are their abilities to be sound managers, institutional developers, and public relations experts.