Campus Life

When high school rebels embark upon college, they can pursue well-defined avenues of political or artistic expression, thanks to an alternative subculture available to American college freshmen since 1910, the author notes. The same is true for students who are more in the mainstreamthey can fall in step with a campus subculture that downplays academic work while glorifying social grace and athletic prowess. In addition to collegiate types and rebels, Horowitz, professor of history at the Univ. of Southern California, identifies a third subculture, that of the ""outsiders.'' For these intensely serious students, college is primarily a means to rise in the world. This comprehensive social history redefines the terrain of campus life, past and present. By grounding her schema in vivid history and anecdote, the author is able to tackle head-on a fraternity-bred tradition, still wide-spread, which devalues academic and intellectual achievement. A path-breaking study. (April 16)