University Reform

Tiede's work will serve as a resource not only for scholars of the history of higher education, but also for researchers and practitioners who seek to gain a long-term historical perspective and context on important topics such as shared governance, academic freedom, tenure, and due process.

What we do have now is an excellent story of university reform that includes a thorough exhumation of the compromises and conflicts that were central to the founding and priorities of the AAUP—all of whose principles and liturgy are still invoked a century later.

University Reform speaks importantly to our current moment

This book provides insight into the tensions inherent in the American university system and inspiration for the role professors might play in successfully addressing them.

I know of no other work on the organization that is based on such extensive use of archival material.

Those interested in how and why the AAUP began will find Tiede’s book definitive, far surpassing previous publications in its scope and depth. It draws upon invaluable untapped archival material and introduces the reader to the relatively unsung contributions of a second generation of AAUP leaders.

This book is a critical account of the early years of the AAUP...about how it came to be that people devised a system for treating controversial professors fairly. They did it by developing arguments, and ultimately practices, that now serve as the bedrock of higher education in the United States. We are all in their debt—and now, too, we are in debt to Joerg Tiede for this book.