To Rise Above Principle

by Josef Martin

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 025201507X
• ISBN13: 9780252015076
• Release Date: April 1988
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Delightfully engaging

One of my clients told me one of the jokes in this book. I wanted to know a bit more about the "rest of the story" and therefore tracked it down. Turns out the author a) writes under a pseudonym and b) himself only "reports that he heard about..." that particular example of academic tribal behavior, so I don't know any more now than I did before. But the effort to find the book was well repaid. The book sat in my "to read" pile for a week or two after it arrived. In cloth cover, it's unprepossessing and I expected that it would be dry and require more discipline than I had on hand. However, once I picked it up and started reading, it only took two sessions to finish (and would have been done in one, had life allowed). Dr. "Martin" (could he have known that the shoes would take over that title?) discusses different aspects of decanal life in each chapter, from dealing with upset parents to tenure to negotiating with wanted and unwanted faculty. If he is still active, it would be interesting to see if he would write the chapters about gay rights and women's issues differently today; the field has changed. Apart from that, the book is as applicable today as it was when it was written. I've always been interested in "other people's work" and aware that many people think their bosses and subordinates do not work as hard as they themselves work. Rise Above Principle is an entertaining view into a rare "job code" not many people encounter, let alone give consideration to. If your own work brushes academia in any form, this book is worth the time it takes to find and read.