This book is a lively, passionate defence of contemporary work in the humanities, and, beyond that, of the university system that makes such work possible. The book's stark accounts of academic labor, and its proposals for reform of the tenure system, are novel, controversial, and timely.

Very few people understand what has happened to the humanities, and to higher education more generally, over the past 40 years. In this book, Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth explain why it is worth paying attention to debates about such concepts as universalism and definitions of the human; more audaciously, they also explain why it is important that college professors should have the professional working conditions necessary for them to do their jobs. In a clear, compelling, and sometimes surprising narrative, Bérubé and Ruth show why the deprofessionalization of college teaching matters — and what can be done to reverse it.