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.

This book is the "Tristram Shandy" of the history of science, and I love it.

I'm reading this one for a reason: to try to see if the history of academia might help me understand the confusing mess that it has become. What are the origins of all the weight of crazy traditions, secret voting, wacky expectations, pompous self-righteousness? Read and see! It's interesting to find out that Oxford and Cambridge actually had pretty lightweight reps in the Middle Ages.