Extract

William Clark offers a new take on the much-studied history of universities. His focus is on the German universities in which the notion developed that the central purpose of a university was research (a famous formulation by Wilhelm von Humboldt is quoted on p. 445); Oxford and Cambridge, which accepted this idea only slowly and reluctantly, serve as foils. Part of Clark's new approach consists in telling the story of universities as a struggle between two of Max Weber's types of authority: charismatic and rational. Academics cultivate charisma by insisting on their professorial dignity and by gathering admirers of their lecturing and their research achievements. Bureaucrats constantly try to regulate academics by defining and enforcing their duties and requiring them to report on their own work and that of their students. This familiar conflict has been enacted many times over the centuries, especially in the German states, where civil servants intent on Policey intervened to ensure that professors gave their lectures on time and got through the syllabus.

You do not currently have access to this article.