When the linguist and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt learned, in 1808, that Prussia’s new minister had chosen him to reform the state educational system, he was less than delighted. Humboldt was enjoying a quiet sojourn in Rome as ambassador to the Holy See and lamented the idea of abandoning his peaceful post. Politically, he imagined that this task would be doomed to failure, curtailing his career as a statesman. And then there was the issue of personnel. “Managing a crowd of scholars,” he complained, “is not much better than running a traveling circus.”

The Promise and Perils of the Academic Social Contract