Drawing on Julian Benda's famous Treason of the Intellectuals, this book exposes the damaging impact of market-driven ideology on the institution of the University, and calls for a reassertion of the values of knowledge-seeking, democracy and justice.

IntroductionPart I: Betrayal1 Private studyPart II: Crisis2 Titles and entitlements: why ‘university’?3 The exceptional and the ordinary4 Another brick in the wall5 Inflation, democracy, and populismPart III: Survival6 Origins, originality, and the privileges of nature7 Preliminary hypotheses towards a manifestoIndex

The University is under threat. For forty years, this indispensable democratic institution has been systematically betrayed by governments and the political class, who have redirected it from its proper social and cultural functions through a relentless programme of financialisation. With each year the situation gets worse – decisive action is essential.Taking his cue from Julien Benda’s classic polemical essay of 1927, Thomas Docherty exposes the forces behind modern University ‘reform’. He demonstrates that the sector has been politicised and now works explicitly to advance a market-fundamentalist ideology. Human values are measured by money and wealth is mistaken for ‘the good’; social, cultural and political corruption all follow. The University’s leadership has therefore become complicit in an even more dangerous betrayal of society at large, as an ever-widening wedge is driven between ordinary citizens and the self-interest of the privileged and wealthy. It is no wonder that ‘experts’ are in the dock.A century ago, Benda accused intellectuals of treason: their thinking had been politicised, polluted by a nationalism that could only culminate in war. We continue to live in the aftermath of this situation. By endorsing an ideology of ‘competition’, intellectuals have established a neo-Hobbesian war of all against all as the new cornerstone of societies. In light of this, the intellectual and the University have an urgent duty to extend democracy and social justice. Looking to the future, Docherty concludes the book with seven hypotheses towards a manifesto and calls on intellectuals everywhere to assist in the survival of the species.

'Docherty’s uncompromising account of how the University has been betrayed and diminished by the "totalitarianism of market fundamentalism" should be essential reading for anyone interested in the fate of higher education. He gives an impassioned and powerful defence of intellectual work and its significance. More, the book’s intellectual depth and range – covering literature, philosophy, theory, history, art and popular culture – clearly demonstrates both the scholarly virtues for which he argues and his active dissent from complicity.'Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London ‘Docherty’s book is an elegant and powerful defence of the university as a space of free inquiry, a space that is increasingly circumscribed. Most worrying is academics’ choice of a comfortable life and the rewards of office over the rigours and unease of the academic vocation. It will not be possible to complete a personal development performance review form with a clear conscience after reading this book.’John Holmwood, Professor of Sociology, University of Nottingham