Description
Book SynopsisPresents an argument that the research university developed in response to market forces and bureaucracy, producing a academic whose goal was to establish originality and achieve fame through publication. This book investigates the origins and evolving fixtures of academic life: the lecture catalog, the library catalog, and the grading system.
Trade Review"In almost any way that one can imagine, Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University is an astonishing book.... Many times the prose is purposefully funny and anything but dry-as-dust academic writing. No summary can do justice to a book so relentless in analysis and so rich in original source material.... This is a brilliant book. The styles and methods may be recognizable, but the whole is daringly new, exciting, and disturbing." - Sheldon Rothblatt, American Scientist "[Clark] makes his case with analytic shrewdness, an exuberant love of archival anecdote, and a wry sense of humor. It's hard to resist a writer who begins by noting, 'Befitting the subject, this is an odd book.'" - Anthony Grafton, New Yorker"