City on a Hill: Testing the American Dream at City College
James Traub
City College of New York is perhaps the longest-running, radical social experiment in American history. For one hundred and fifty years, City has been the bellwether of this nation's effort to bring the urban poor into the middle class. And as generations of immigrant children passed beneath its arched gateway and emerged as scientists, scholars, and teachers, City more than justified America's liberal faith in the transformative power of education. But over the last few generations the dynamics and the demographics of urban poverty have changed; the barriers to assimilation have grown. City on a Hill spans these eras, telling the story of the college's difficult present against the backdrop of its fabled past. The juxtaposition forces a fundamental question: How much power do America's institutions have in the face of the cultural and economic forces that now perpetuate inner-city poverty?
Award History
1 wins · 1 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hillman Prize for Book Journalism | 1995 | Winner | Official source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
02 Central places
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.
- City College of New York55%
03 Suggested argument
No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.
This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.
America’s institutions, exemplified by City College, may be limited in their ability to overcome cultural and economic forces that perpetuate inner-city poverty.
Model confidence 54%
04 Reading orientation
42 / 100 academicTrade / academic crossover
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 46%.