“In a sea of simplistic and often bombastic critiques of American higher education, Tressie McMillan Cottom’s trenchant analysis of Lower Ed stands out. It is a powerful, chilling tale of what happens when profit-driven privatization of a public good latches on to systemic inequality and individual aspirations.” -Carol Anderson, author of White Rage and professor of African American studies at Emory University It is nuanced, carefully argued, and engagingly written. Darity Jr., professor of economics, public policy, and African American studies at Duke University

This is the best book I’ve read on for-profit (or shareholder) colleges and universities.” -William A. “ profound examination of the role of for-profit colleges in the emerging, ‘new’ American economic landscape. “ bracing study of the for-profits.” - The New York Review of Books It is an eye-opening portrait of this burgeoning educational sector and the ways in which its rapid expansion is linked to skyrocketing inequality and growing labor precarity in the twenty-first-century United States.” -Ruth Milkman, past president of the American Sociological Association “This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the market forces currently transforming higher education. Her sharp intelligence, throughout, makes this book compelling, unforgettable, and deeply necessary.” -Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women and Bad Feminist

“In Lower Ed McMillan Cottom is at her very best-rigorous, incisive, empathetic, and witty. Davidson, author of Now You See It and founding director of the Futures Initiative at the City University of New York “With passion, eloquence, and data too, McMillan Cottom charts the harm we are doing to our youth, to higher education, and to democracy itself.” -Cathy N.

Lower Ed by Tressie McMillan Cottom