Professionals today wield an enormous public power. Collectively; their decisions affect the patient's plight; the client's fate; the student's future; the city's scape; the Earth's sustainability; the worker's fair treatment; and the durability of institution's great and small. Yet professionals do not perceive themselves as power wielders. They feel beleaguered; marginal; insufficiently appreciated; often under siege. Thus they tend to obscure for themselves their obligation to the common good. This book explores eight professions as they struggle with their double identity--as a means to livelihood and as a "common calling in the spirit of public service." An interpretation of American culture emerges from its pages; as social critic William May opens up the ways in which each profession answers to something deep in the American spirit.
#2236797 in Books Wiley-Blackwell 2002-03-12Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .91 x 5.53l; .92 #File Name: 063122033X320 pages
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