The Pleasures of Academe

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"This is a serious, yet also witty and at times light-hearted, discussion of higher education by a distinguished academic who is proud to call himself a faculty member. Professor Axtell presents a vivid picture of what it is like to teach, to do research, and to live as an academic. Many others, I am sure, will agree that this is an instructive and useful 'primer' that is also fun to read."-William G. Bowen, president emeritus of Princeton University. "A humanely sensitive, historically informed, and splendidly affirmative evocation of the challenges and (yes!) the joys of the academic calling. An invigorating and refreshing antidote to the dyspeptic negativities and sloppy inaccuracies characteristic of so much of the recent criticism directed at American higher education."-Francis Oakley, president emeritus of Williams College. For years, American colleges and universities have been criticized by the media, cash-strapped state legislators, and many others. Bearing the brunt of these attacks are the professors, accused of working too little and of neglecting their teaching responsibilities in favor of research. In this lively and timely book, the distinguished historian James Axtell offers a compelling defense of higher education. Drawing on national statistics, broad-ranging scholarship, and delightful anecdotes, Axtell reminds us of the dedication of professors and the increasing demands placed on them. He 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 discusses, with imagination and wit, the many pleasures of academic life, including intercollegiatesports, the "benign pathology" of loving and collecting books, teaching and service outside the classroom, life in college towns, and working vacations. Axtell persuasively confronts the major critics of higher education, arguing that they have perpetuated misunderstandings of tenure, research, teaching, curricular change, and professorial politics. James Axtell is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of numerous books, including the award-winning The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America and Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America.