The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration and Defense of Higher Education

Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. 1st Printing. Trade Paperback. Near Fine. 6x0x9. First printing. Remainder mark. 1999 Trade Paperback. xix, 292 pp. In this timely book, historian James Axtell offers a compelling defense of higher education. Drawing on national statistics, broad-ranging scholarship, and delightful anecdotes, Axtell describes the professorial work cycle, the evolution of scholarship in the past three decades, the importance of “habitual scholarship,” and the best ways to judge a university. He persuasively confronts the critics of higher education, arguing that they have perpetuated misunderstandings of tenure, research, teaching, curricular change, and professorial politics.