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Although often tiresome, this book provides original insights into the origins of the modern university. The author shows that early universities, from the 11th through the 16th centuries, thrived on nepotism and ill-defined professors who were supposed to be jacks of all trades. In the new Jesuit and Prussian universities of the 17th and 18th centuries, however, church and state subsidies and bureaucratic oversight forced universities to prove the value of hiring professors objectively. The "fame" of professors in certain well-defined subject areas, especially in Prussia in linguistics, gave bureaucrats a semi-objective measure about how to do this. In 1749 the Prussian ministry even passed the first "publish or perish" regulations, demanding regular publications from professors to show their value. It's a surprising origin story for modern academia.
