Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction Introduction -- PART ONE: THE POLITICS OF CRITICISM -- 1. How to Be an Intellectual: Rorty v. Ross -- 2. The Retrospective Tenor of Recent Theory -- 3. The Rise of the Theory Journal -- 4. How Critics Became Smart -- 5. Publicist Intellectuals -- 6. The Ubiquity of Culture -- 7. Credibility and Criticism: On Walter Benn Michaels -- 8. The Statistical Turn in Literary Criticism -- PART TWO: PROFILES IN CRITICISM -- 9. Prodigal Critics: Bloom, Fish, and Greenblatt -- 10. A Life in Criticism: M. H. Abrams -- 11. Bellwether: J. Hillis Miller -- 12. The Political Theory License: Michael Walzer -- 13. The Critic as Wanderer: Terry Eagleton -- 14. From Cyborgs to Animals: Donna Haraway -- 15. Intellectuals and Politics: Stefan Collini -- 16. The Editor as Broker: Gordon Hutner -- 17. Gaga Feminism: Judith "Jack" Halberstam -- 18. Book Angst -- PART THREE: THE PREDICAMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY -- 19. The Pedagogy of Debt -- 20. Student Debt and the Spirit of Indenture -- 21. The Academic Devolution -- 22. The Neoliberal Bias of Higher Education -- 23. The University on Film -- 24. The Thrill Is Gone -- 25. Unlucky Jim -- 26. Academic Opportunities Unlimited -- PART FOUR: THE PERSONAL AND THE CRITICAL -- 27. The Pedagogy of Prison -- 28. Shelf Life -- 29. Teacher: Remembering Michael Sprinker -- 30. My Life as Editor -- 31. Other People's Words -- 32. Long Island Intellectual