Noting that "career education is only the latest in the grand parade of American learning fads," the author points out that despite the proliferation of technology in France and the habit of accepting American fads, the French still consider education to have three aims--for work, for public life, for private life. (JT)

The major elements of the Schumpeterian schema are examined, and events in the development of higher education in the United States are plotted on the Kondratieff Waves, with special reference to the evolution of liberal education and the sciences. It is suggested that the liberal arts, which had great impact in the 17th century, declined after…