University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

One of the most difficult aspects of the scholarly life is to reconcile the pleasure of reading, writing, and teaching with the fact that one's success is largely individual and lost to most people in and out of the academy. Laquer's cultural history is an apt metaphor for the scholarly life, and in this respect, he offers an extremely astute way of comprehending the difficulties implicit in academics. For me, his book is visionary and an extremely insightful portrayal of the rationale for being a scholar in a culture and environment that has abandoned ideas and passion in exchange for short term economic currency.