Exposed
A College in Crisis Puts Science to the Test
Format:Hardback
Publisher:WW Norton & Co
Publishing:8th Dec '26
£20.00
This title is due to be published on 8th December, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
For half a century, Americans have been told that science and technology are the future. We invested in the so-called “hard sciences,” while casting the “soft sciences” as indulgent and unprofitable. Then, Covid hit. In higher education, where faith in STEM was strong and where elite universities leaned into investing in high-profit STEM fields, schools holding in-person semesters enforced strict public health measures, but they underestimated social forces: interpersonal needs especially acute in late adolescence, like friendship, sex, and love. In response to excessive bureaucracy and uneven enforcement, many students lost faith in institutions as they split into Covid-cautious and Covid-incautious factions, deepening racial, class, and geographic divides. Fraternities (already coddled by administrators) thrived while Black residents of New Orleans bore the costs of superspreader student events. In Exposed, renowned sociologist Lisa Wade argues that a healthier response was possible, offering insights for building social solidarity, redefining freedom, and nurturing a more humane society.
"Deeply absorbing, full of compelling characters, Exposed offers a hope-filled vision of how politics and communities could actually work together for a desperately needed, better future." -- Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape
"Fascinating, heartwarming, vivid, and sometimes horrifying." -- Jessica Calarco, author of A Field Guide to Grad School
"A remarkable report, told through the gripping stories of young people who wanted, above all, a return to normalcy in an upended world." -- Eric Klinenberg, author of 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed
"Both delightfully easy to read and complex to ponder. A meditation on the consequences of treating college as a private consumption good rather than a public investment in our collective future." -- Arline T. Geronimus, author of Weathering: he Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society
"A masterful, compelling work that speaks far beyond this slice of life to broader social and material realities. I’m awed by this project." -- Ashley Shew, author of Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement
"Extraordinary—helps us see how the many divisions and decisions at every level of society shape the young people who will in turn shape the future." -- Perri Klass, author of A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future
"Brilliantly—and uniquely—reveals what we need to know about how public health policies intersect with both human needs and a society riven with polarization and inequality." -- Lee Bollinger, former president of Columbia University
ISBN: 9781324086956
Dimensions: 236mm x 160mm x 23mm
Weight: 409g
256 pages