“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
—Upton Sinclair
Purpose
This proposal seeks modest support to research and write a new book in the spirit of Upton Sinclair’s 1923 exposé The Goose-Step: A Study of American Education, a biting critique of higher education’s corruption and corporate control. The revised and updated work—tentatively titled The Goose-Step Revisited: The College Meltdown and the Future of American Higher Ed—will document the present crisis of U.S. higher education from the ground up: on campuses, in classrooms, in communities, and in conversations with students, workers, adjuncts, administrators, and those left behind.
This is not a detached academic exercise. It is a journalistic and moral investigation into a failing system. Like Sinclair, we will name names. But we will also listen carefully to those who are rarely heard—especially debtors, dropouts, whistleblowers, and exploited faculty.
Scope
The project will include:
Travel across the U.S. to visit a diverse array of colleges: from collapsing for-profits and underfunded regional publics to elite private institutions and community colleges on the brink.
Field interviews with stakeholders in higher education, including:
Adjuncts and contingent faculty
Debt-burdened students and recent grads
College workers and unions
Policy experts and whistleblowers
Administrators, where access is permitted
Archival research and use of public data (IPEDS, College Scorecard, OPE, etc.)
Photographs and dispatches for the Higher Education Inquirer along the way
A final book manuscript, synthesizing travel writing, investigative reporting, data analysis, and historical reflection.
Questions the Book Will Explore
How does the current College Meltdown resemble or diverge from the problems Sinclair exposed in 1923?
What does higher education actually provide today—for whom, and at what cost?
How have corporatization, finance capital, and political ideology reshaped American colleges?
Is reform still possible—or are we watching the managed decline of an unsustainable system?
Budget and Support Needed
This is a modest request, commensurate with the ethos of the Higher Education Inquirer. A stripped-down, independent operation. Key needs:
Travel and lodging across the U.S. (preferably via Amtrak, bus, or car)
Minimal tech support (phone, laptop, data storage)
Small editorial stipend for fact-checking, manuscript preparation
Crowdfunding, foundation support, or collaboration with independent media outlets may supplement this request.
Why Now?
The signs are everywhere.
Colleges closing.
Debt rising.
Adjuncts starving.
Truth distorted.
Labor crushed.
Meanwhile, the gatekeepers of knowledge—like those in Sinclair’s time—are too often complicit, compromised, or silent.
This book is not intended to speak for anyone. It aims to amplify those whose stories have been buried beneath bureaucracy and branding. It's A Modest Proposal for a not-so-modest truth: American higher education is in a manufactured crisis. But from this so-called collapse, a more just and democratic vision might emerge—if we’re willing to listen, document, and act.
This is a proposal to walk the ruins, record the voices, and revive the fierce spirit of Upton Sinclair.
