The Community Solution

I approached *The Community Solution* expecting another dry manifesto about academic collaboration—so I was shocked to find myself underlining passages like they were conspiracy theories rather than policy proposals. Horowitz isn’t peddling gentle suggestions; he’s demanding a cultural overhaul where universities stop hoarding their best courses, faculty, and even their brand equity as if it’s lifeblood. The chapter on ‘shared curriculum alliances’ is the book’s beating heart: it’s not theoretical. He profiles institutions like the Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, where schools that once saw each other as threats now exchange online courses like trading cards, saving millions and keeping programs alive. McIntyre’s performance deserves its own praise—he switches effortlessly between the crisp precision of a public radio host and the measured intensity of a trial lawyer dissecting a witness’s testimony. My only quibbles? The audiobook clocks in under five hours, which means some critical case studies get short shrift, and the final third drags slightly when Horowitz leans into policy minutiae that could’ve been condensed. But those are minor sins for a book that fundamentally flips how we think about institutional survival. If you’re a university leader, trust me: put down the enrollment management reports and listen to this instead.