Rudy Weingartner takes us on a gentle but invigorating ride through the groves of academe. It is a journey that will be of interest to anyone who has worked in a university, and I think it will fascinate many of those for whom a university education has been an important experience. The book also speaks to the centrality of the humanities in the construction of our higher education. Finally, it will fascinate anyone interested in the Americanization of a talented immigrant boy who makes the most of the remarkable educational opportunities available in this country. It is a wonderful read. -- Stanley N. Katz, Princeton University
Dr. Weingartner's book is fascinating on three levels: as an intellectual autobiography, an account of an academic career in institutions both public and private, and a reflection on the nature of education, the profession of teaching and scholarship, the value of the liberal arts, the nature of the institutions of the university and college, and the conditions and purposes of academic administration. By starting from his own experience, Dr. Weingartner gives concrete context for the general ideas through which he illuminates the state, and the challenges, of higher education today. -- Hanna H. Gray, President Emerita, The University of Chicago
Weingartner lived through decades of the publish-or-perish policy, both in its positive and negative forms, mandatory retirement ages for professors, and several of the very strange and arcane rites known as choosing a new college president. The result here is an accessible and readable account of what it is to live a life of the mind while surrounded with administrative responsibilities that sometimes are the least intellectual things one can do without buying specially-made shoes. New professors, new administrators and new university board members, read this. * Book News, Inc. *
His insights are personal and abosrbing.... Frank and refreshing....The book's informal and engaging style makes it ideal as s supplementary reading in courses in higher education leadership or the history of higher education. -- A. G. Rud, Purdue University
Rudolph Weingartner has had experience in every aspect and at every level of education in America. He has readable, practical bits of advice to give about them all from which college a student should attend, to the strengths and limits of the publish-or-perish policy, to the need for mandatory retirement for professors, and on to the norms of choosing college presidents. All this information is empirically grounded in tales of how he acquired it. -- Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg
