This collection focuses on the forces that have worked together to create the U.S. system of higher education. Contributors consider the development of the university system, the present role of the university, and the future of higher education. The chapters are: (1) "How the Academic Profession Is Changing" (Arthur Levine); (2) "Small Worlds, Different Worlds: The Uniquenesses and Troubles of American Academic Professions" (Burton R. Clark); (3) "The Elusive Academic Profession: Complexity and Change" (Francis Oakley); (4) "Uncertainties in the Changing Academic Profession" (Walter E. Massey); (5) "Stewards of Opportunity: America's Public Community Colleges" (Patrick M. Callan); (6) "Public Universities as Academic Workplaces" (Patricia J. Gumport); (7) "Survival of the Fittest? Postgraduate Education and the Professoriate at the Fin de Siecle" (R. M. Douglas); (8) "Reflections on the Culture Wars" (Eugene Goodheart); (9) "A Blow Is Like an Instrument" (Charles Bernstein); (10) "The Science Wars and the Future of the American Academic Profession" (Jay A. Labinger); (11) "The Scientist as Academic" (Cheryl B. Leggon); (12) "The 'Place' of Knowledge in the American Academic Profession" (Sheldon Rothblatt); (13) "Border Crossings: Organizational Boundaries and Challenges to the American Professoriate" (Theodore R. Mitchell);(14) "The Development of Information Technology in American Higher Education" (Martin Trow); and (15) "An International Academic Crisis? The American Professoriate in Comparative Perspective" (Phillip G. Altbach). Each chapter contains endnotes. (SLD)