RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewBenner and Green have published the definitive book-length account of the T.M. Landry scandal ... The narrative centers on Michael, a charismatic grifter and, according to firsthand testimony from multiple students, a violent, serial abuser of children ... The book begins at the peak of T.M. Landry’s success, a cringe-worthy episode of \'Ellen\' celebrating two brothers headed to Stanford and Harvard ... But the best, most engrossing parts of Miracle Children come in several long, central chapters describing the families Michael recruited for his ever-expanding design ... Michael flattened his charges into caricatures; the authors restore them to three dimensions with precision and care. Young men and women like Doraian Givens, a viola-playing descendant of scholars and activists, emerge in full form — proud, imperfect and determined. Most of them knew something was off about the Landrys ... A lay reader might assume that having your rampant child abuse and elaborate fraud revealed on the front page of the newspaper of record would result in disgrace and prosecution — or at the very least, the end of your scam. The actual story of what happened next in Miracle Children is far more sobering, but unsurprising given how convincingly the authors describe the broken system of educational opportunity ... Miracle Children is an urgent chronicle of corruption inside corruption. It might also be a prophecy of worse to come.
Will Bunch
PositiveThe New York TimesAfter the Ivory Tower Falls, by the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch, is the story of how the Great Wall of Loans was built and why it divides us, of how higher education went from a beloved guarantor of opportunity to, in Bunch’s telling, a fracturing force of cultural and economic separation...It is ambitious and engrossing, even when the narrative sometimes strains to fit the demands of Bunch’s argument that college has become \'a fake meritocracy rigged to make half of America hate it\'...Bunch applies his skills as a veteran newspaper reporter throughout the book, incorporating the firsthand voices of Savio’s widow, gunshot survivors of the Kent State massacre, and many others, to great effect...But most of his reporting focuses on present-day conflicts that seem to be pulling the nation apart...He talks to liberal college professors shocked into activism by the Trump presidency and to churchgoing, Trump-loving residents of nearby towns who feel alienated by wealthy students and the cultural convulsions they represent...The prose is tight, direct and often bracing...After the Ivory Tower Falls concludes with a thoughtful, nuanced discussion of the practical and political challenges faced by lawmakers trying to turn the higher education system back toward public purpose...It also advocates for a form of highly encouraged national service as a means of recreating the post-World War II spirit of national unity, without the war...The elder members of our warring political tribes may be too far apart, but Bunch has hope yet for younger generations working together on behalf of their communities, rather than struggling alone through a college system filled with financial traps at every turn.
