"In his brilliant book, Di Leo creates a new language and mode of critique to understand the ideas, social relations, desires, values, and forms of agency that imprint neoliberalism with a sense of normalcy. This book offers up a new way to reclaim not a romanticized university of the past but one that serves the present and future as an institution for democracy, justice, critical inquiry, and social responsibility. A must read in dark times." (Henry A. Giroux, University Professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest, McMaster University, Canada) "This important book's major contribution is to promote workable standards, challenging the reigning system, which would turn neoliberalism against itself. Filled with brilliant readings of intellectual classics, recent educational Jeremiads, and contemporary popular culture, this book will be a classic guide for those who would transform the new normal." (Daniel T. O'Hara , Professor of English and Mellon Professor of Humanities, Temple University, USA) "Di Leo offers a prescient critique of the recasting of higher education by neoliberal prerogatives.

Much more than simply describing the crisis or bemoaning the lineaments of austerity, this book explores the basis for resistance and change in academe. For those of us concerned about the future of the university, this should be required reading." (Peter Hitchcock, Professor of English, City University of New York, USA).