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Summary and Analysis of Patient H.M.: Based on the Book by Luke Dittrich (Smart Summaries)
by Worth BooksSo much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Patient H.M. tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Luke Dittrich&’s book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This short summary and analysis of Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets includes: Historical contextChapter-by-chapter overviewsProfiles of the main charactersDetailed timeline of key eventsImportant quotesFascinating triviaGlossary of termsSupporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work About Patient H.M. by Luke Dittrich: Patient H.M. tells the extraordinary true story of Henry Molaison, a young man who underwent a lobotomy in 1953 in hopes of curing his epilepsy. Instead, he suffered extensive memory loss and would became the most studied patient in the history of neuroscience. Luke Dittrich, whose grandfather performed the surgery, artfully combines family history, medical science, and investigative journalism to create a suspenseful and unsettling narrative on the search to understand the most elusive of scientific research topics: the human memory. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
Flush
by Carl HiaasenA hilarious, high-stakes adventure involving crooked casino boats, floating fish, toxic beaches, and one kid determined to get justice. This is Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder! You know it's going to be a rough summer when you spend Father's Day visiting your dad in the local lockup.Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor–which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can't prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah's dad is stuck in the clink.Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally . . . somehow. His allies may not add up to much–his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate–but Noah's got a plan to flush this crook out into the open. A plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.
Chomp (Playaway Children Ser.)
by Carl HiaasenIn this hysterical #1 New York Times bestseller, one kid has to wrangle gators, snakes, bats that bite, and a reality show host gone rogue! This is Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder! When Wahoo Cray&’s dad—a professional animal wrangler—takes a job with a reality TV show called Expedition Survival!, Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself to keep his father from killing Derek Badger, the show's inept and egotistical star. But the job keeps getting more complicated: Derek Badger insists on using wild animals for his stunts; and Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her father and needs a place to hide out. They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun . . . It's anyone's guess who will actually survive Expedition Survival. . . &“Only in Florida—and in the fiction of its native son Carl Hiaasen—does a dead iguana fall from a palm tree and kill somebody.&” —New York Post &“Chomp is a delightful laugh-out-loud sendup of the surreality of TV that will be enjoyed by readers of all ages.&” —Los Angeles Times
Scat
by Carl HiaasenCarl Hiaasen takes us deep in the Everglades with an eccentric eco-avenger, a ticked-off panther, and two kids on a mission to find their missing teacher. Florida—where the animals are wild and the people are wilder! Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, is missing. She disappeared after a school field trip to Black Vine Swamp. And, to be honest, the kids in her class are relieved. But when the principal tries to tell the students that Mrs. Starch has been called away on a "family emergency," Nick and Marta just don't buy it. No, they figure the class delinquent, Smoke, has something to do with her disappearance. And he does! But not in the way they think. There's a lot more going on in Black Vine Swamp than any one player in this twisted tale can see. It&’s all about to hit the fan, and when it does, the bad guys better scat. &“Ingenious . . . Scat won&’t disappoint Hiaasenphiles of any age.&” —The New York Times &“Woohoo! It&’s time for another trip to Florida—screwy, gorgeous Florida, with its swamps and scammers and strange creatures (two- and four-legged). Our guide, of course, is Carl Hiaasen.&” —DenverPost.com
Hoot
by Carl HiaasenThis Newbery Honor winner and #1 New York Times bestseller is a beloved modern classic. Hoot features a new kid and his new bully, alligators, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes.A PARADE BEST KIDS BOOK OF ALL TIMEEverybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter?Welcome to Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder!
Squirm
by Carl HiaasenA wildly entertaining adventure involving snakes, grizzlies, a menacing drone, a missing father, and the kid determined to find him. In classic Hiaasen fashion, the animals here are wild, and the people are wilder! Some facts about Billy Dickens: * He once saw a biker swerve across the road in order to run over a snake. * Later, that motorcycle somehow ended up at the bottom of a canal. * Billy isn't the type to let things go. Some facts about Billy's family: * They've lived in six different Florida towns because Billy's mom insists on getting a house near a bald eagle nest. * Billy's dad left when he was four and is a total mystery. * Billy has just found his dad's address--in Montana. This summer, Billy will fly across the country, hike a mountain, float a river, dodge a grizzly bear, shoot down a spy drone, save a neighbor's cat, save an endangered panther, and then try to save his own father. "A fun romp that will keep readers hooked." —The New York Times
Wrecker
by Carl Hiaasen#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Wrecker needs to deal with smugglers, grave robbers, and pooping iguanas—just as soon as he finishes Zoom school. Welcome to another wild adventure in Carl Hiaasen's Florida!Valdez Jones VIII calls himself Wrecker because his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather salvaged shipwrecks for a living. So is it destiny, irony, or just bad luck when Wrecker comes across a speedboat that has run hard aground on a sand flat? The men in the boat don't want Wrecker to call for help—in fact, they'll pay him to forget he ever saw them. Wrecker would be happy to forget, but he keeps seeing these men all over Key West—at the marina, in the cemetery, even right outside his own door. And now they want more than his silence—they want a lookout.He'll have to dive deep into their shady dealings to figure out a way to escape this tangled net. . . .
Dataproc Cookbook
by Narasimha Sadineni Anuyogam VenkataramanWant to build big data solutions in Google Cloud? Dataproc Cookbook is your hands-on guide to mastering Dataproc and the essential GCP fundamentals—like networking, security, monitoring, and cost optimization--that apply across Google Cloud services. Learn practical skills that not only fast-track your Dataproc expertise, but also help you succeed with a wide range of GCP technologies.Written by data experts Narasimha Sadineni and Anu Venkataraman, this cookbook tackles real-world use cases like serverless Spark jobs, Kubernetes-native deployments, and cost-optimized data lake workflows. You'll learn how to create ephemeral and persistent Dataproc clusters, run secure data science workloads, implement monitoring solutions, and plan effective migration and optimization strategies.Create Dataproc clusters on Compute Engine and Kubernetes EngineRun data science workloads on DataprocExecute Spark jobs on Dataproc ServerlessOptimize Dataproc clusters to be cost effective and performantMonitor Spark jobs in various waysOrchestrate various workloads and activitiesUse different methods for migrating data and workloads from existing Hadoop clusters to Dataproc
Risky Business: Insurance Markets and Regulation
by Lawrence S. PowellToday&’s insurance regulation in the United States is at a crossroads: while some segments of the insurance industry are moving away from a state-based approach toward regulation, others favor a greater role for the federal government—despite the opposition from other stakeholders. Written by leading scholars in risk management, this book addresses some of the most important questions facing the future of state and federal regulation of the insurance industry.Insurance regulation in the United States is at a crossroads. It used to be a given that the insurance industry would resist efforts to move away from state-based approaches toward regulation—but no more. Some now favor a greater role for the federal government, while others oppose calls to transition to a federal system. In any case, might not a competitive and innovative system of free-market insurance be preferable to best serve the interests of consumers? The current debate over insurance regulation is increasingly a struggle between competing interest groups and opposing ideologies about the proper scope of government—a conflict that affects individuals&’ decisions about how much risk to undertake, whether those decisions involve driving a motorcycle in dense urban traffic or building a home in a flood, fire, hurricane or other high-risk zone. But what types of reforms would best serve the interests of consumers? And what lessons can be learned from previous reform efforts? In Risky Business: Insurance Markets and Regulation, edited by Lawrence S. Powell, leading scholars in risk management address some of the most important questions about the future of insurance regulation and the potential for market-based alternatives. The book examines not only the impetus behind various reform proposals, but also the historical development of insurance regulation in the United States. In so doing, Risky Business examines alternative regulatory and deregulatory frameworks used in the United States and in the European Union, and whether such options are beneficial or not.
The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State
by Bruce L. BensonDefenders of the state&’s monopoly on lawmaking and law enforcement typically assume that any alternative arrangement would favor the rich at the expense of the poor—or would lead to the collapse of social order and ignite a war. Questioning how well these beliefs hold up to scrutiny, this book offers a powerful rebuttal of the received view of the relationship between law and government.The provision of justice and security has long been linked in most people&’s minds to the exclusive province of government monopolies. However, in this path-breaking book, Benson shows that a system of market-based institutions, rooted in the legal principle of personal accountability under a rule of law in all aspects of criminal justice, have and can deliver those services on their own, without the aid of taxation and a coercive state monopoly on the establishment and enforcement of law. In The Enterprise of Law, Benson offers a powerful rebuttal of the received view of the relationship between law and government. The book brilliantly shows that non-state institutions have and do fight crime, resolve disputes, and render justice more effectively than the state because they have stronger incentives to do so. The book offers a host of landmark findings, and here is just a sampling: The rapid recent growth of private-sector security and conflict resolution continues the effective legacy of private crime control and the common law. Protections for individual rights and private property are not the exclusive purview of government-run legal systems. Privatizing security and dispute-resolution services and contracting out to the private sector, can offer tangible benefits—namely better and more just services at lower costs.
Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and Enemies of the State
by Stephen P. HalbrookBased on newly-discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time, Gun Control in the Third Reich presents the definitive, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust fail even to mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so—it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups. Gun Control in the Third Reich spans the two decades from the birth of the Weimar Republic in 1918 through Kristallnacht in 1938. The book then presents a panorama of pertinent events during World War II regarding the effects of the disarming policies. And even though in the occupied countries the Nazis decreed the death penalty for possession of a firearm, there developed instances of heroic armed resistance by Jews, particularly the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Re-Thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy
by Robert HiggsEnvironmental quality has been a major public concern since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success.Can we do better than this failed environmental bureaucracy? The noted contributors to this volume answer with a resounding "yes." Re-Thinking Green exposes the myths that have contributed to failed environmental policies and proposes bold alternatives that recognize the power of incentives and the limitations of political and regulatory processes. It addresses some of the most hotly debated environmental issues and shows how entrepreneurship and property rights can be utilized to promote environmental quality and economic growth. Re-Thinking Green will challenge readers with new paradigms for resolving environmental problems, stimulate discussion on how best to "humanize" environmental policy, and inspire policymakers to seek effective alternatives to environmental bureaucracy.
Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty
by Ivan ElandWho were the best and worst U.S. presidents? In the past when historians and scholars have rated the presidents, their evaluations often have been based on individual charisma, activism, and service during periods of crisis.Taking a distinctly new approach in Recarving Rushmore, Ivan Eland profiles each U.S. president from Washington to Obama on the merits of his policies and whether those strategies contributed to peace, prosperity, and liberty. This ranking system is based on how effective each president was in fulfilling his oath to uphold the Constitution. Contrary to the preferences of modern conservatives and liberals, this oath was intended to limit the role of the federal government. Readers will be intrigued to discover why, of the four men given exalted representations on Mount Rushmore, only Washington deserves the honor. They will learn why Teddy Roosevelt has been overrated; why Jefferson hypocritically violated his lofty rhetoric of liberty; and why Lincoln provoked a civil war that achieved far less than believed. Readers will uncover why some presidents are rated much higher than the conventional wisdom—for example, Warren Harding—and some rank much lower—for example, Harry Truman. As for more modern U.S. chief executives, Republicans will be astounded to learn that Nixon was the last liberal president and that Reagan wasn&’t all that conservative. Democrats will be amazed to learn that Clinton was in some respects more conservative than George W. Bush and why both Obama and Bush are ranked as bad. Readers will learn why the author goes against the grain and anoints Eisenhower and Carter as the two best modern presidents.
School Choices: True and False
by John MerrifieldThe school choice movement has gained political momentum in recent years, with programs having been established in Milwaukee, Florida, Texas, and elsewhere. But today&’s programs are nothing like the "free market in education" proposed four decades ago by the early proponents of school choice.Economist John Merrifield shows that the "school choice" movement has become mired in false alternatives, petty distinctions, and diminished vision. Yet, he argues that programs providing real educational choices must not be allowed to fail like so many government programs—a freely competitive market for education must remain the ultimate goal. School Choices: True and False charts a course for the achievement of this goal.
Delusions of Power: New Explorations of the State, War, and Economy
by Robert HiggsIn Delusions of Power, economic historian Robert Higgs calls into question our ingrained notions concerning the nature of the state and democracy. Higgs uproots the foundation stone upon which the state&’s powers have rested and grown unchecked by the public.Beginning with the Founding Fathers and moving forward, Higgs reassesses the world wars, the Great Depression and the New Deal, and the financial debacle that began in 2008 with the view of demonstrating Americans&’ loss of liberties. He brings together the crisis in policymaking; key political actors and events; and the impact of war on the economy and civil liberties. For Higgs, war and its costs have had a major impact on American life and freedom. Through reading Higgs&’s work, one will gain a new understanding of the state&’s power, democracy, and the issues threatening the pursuit of liberty. Taking a close look at the dense fabric that our government weaves between war, state power, and economics, this collection of essays reveals the growing authority—and corruption—of the American state. Covering topics from the Lyndon Johnson presidency to the provocatively titled article &“Military-Economic Fascism&” on the military-industrial-congressional complex, it argues that the U.S. government consistently exploits national crises and then invents timely rhetoric that limits the rights and liberties of all citizens for the benefit of the few, be they political leaders or various industrialists in the areas of defense and security. As its title suggests, this book presents a clear narrative of trends and events—from the United States&’ entry into World War II to the origins of income tax—causing individuals to question whether those in power are truly blind to the effects and causes of their policies.
A Better Choice: Healthcare Solutions for America
by John C. GoodmanThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—a.k.a. Obamacare—remains highly controversial and faces ongoing legal and political challenges. Polls show that by a large margin Americans remain opposed to the healthcare law and seek to &“repeal and replace&” it. However, the question is: Replace it with what?In A Better Choice, John C. Goodman clearly and concisely provides the compelling answer—no small feat, considering the complexity and intransigence of problems that have long plagued American healthcare. His prescription of four key reforms may garner the greatest attention as policymakers and the public search for a way out of the healthcare quagmire. For anyone who wants to learn about some of the boldest prescriptions designed to remedy our healthcare system, Goodman&’s book is a must-read.
Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government
by Robert Higgs Arthur A. Ekirch Jr.Discussing how government has continually grown during the past century, this account demonstrates that the main reason lies in government&’s responses to national &“crises&” (real or imagined), including economic upheavals and, especially, war. The result, this book argues, is the ever-increasing government power, which endures long after each crisis has passed, impinging on both civil and economic liberties and fostering extensive corporate welfare.Everyone knows that the U.S. government has grown in size, scope, and power during the past century, but how did this breathtaking transformation come about? Crisis and Leviathan offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation, guided by a novel analytical framework firmly grounded in historical evidence. Integrating the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, this book makes compelling reading for all those who seek to understand the transformation of America&’s political economy over the past century. One of the most important books ever written on the nature of government power, Crisis and Leviathan is a powerful work of first-rate scholarship whose message becomes more important with each passing day.
Living Economics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
by Peter J. BoettkeEconomics is not merely a game to be played by clever professionals, but a discipline that touches upon the most pressing practical issues at any historical juncture. The wealth and poverty of nations is at stake; the length and quality of life turns on the economic conditions individuals find themselves living within. Touching upon a variety of subjects—including market socialism, political economy, and economics education—this reference contains the wisdom of an expert in the field, Peter J. Boettke.The passion of the teacher is often the inspiration for a student. Living Economics illuminates how economics affects all walks of life, whether in the marketplace, voting booth, church, family, or any human activity. Boettke believes that economics is not merely a game to be played by clever professionals, but a discipline that touches on the most pressing practical issues at any historical juncture. The wealth and poverty of nations are at stake; the length and quality of life turns on the economic conditions individuals find themselves living with. So teaching and learning economics are high stakes ventures. Along the way he introduces us to major thinkers: from the Late Scholastics in 16th- and 17th-century Spain to Smith, Say, and Bastiat of the Classical School, to Austrian School scholars (Menger, Mises, Hayek, Kirzner, and Rothbard) on to New Institutional economists (Alchian, Coase, Demsetz, North, Ostrom and Williamson) and Public Choice theorists (Buchanan, Tullock, and others). This engaging and reasoned book is a must-read for economists, students, and everyone else who wishes to better understand economics. A great supplemental text for the teaching of economics, this book offers a clear perspective and a passion for a deeper understanding of the subject.
Fire & Smoke: Government, Lawsuits, and the Rule of Law
by Michael I. KraussThe state of Mississippi&’s lawsuit against tobacco companies in 1994 was quickly emulated by more than a dozen other states and then the federal government. Not to be outdone, more than a dozen cities and the federal government have followed the City of New Orleans&’s lead and sued gun manufacturers. Do these lawsuits signal new directions for more effective public policy or a new and dangerous trend whereby governments use tort law to achieve public policy objectives they were unable to accomplish legislatively? In this new policy report, so-called government &“recoupment&” lawsuits are carefully examined and found to be flagrant abuses of the constitutional separation of powers, seriously undermining over two hundred years of common-law torts adjudication. Author Michael Krauss, a leading legal scholar on the relationship between tort law and personal freedoms, systematically dissects the tobacco and firearm recoupment lawsuits. He shows how such lawsuits betray every criterion of sound, effective, and just tort law. The lawsuits against gun manufacturers can show no damages, no proximate causation, and no wrongdoing. Similarly, governments have no direct damages to claim against tobacco manufacturers and cannot legally stand in the place of individual smokers or their families. Fire & Smoke concludes that recoupment lawsuits are incompatible with civil freedoms, representative democracy, and the rule of law upon which institutions of a free society depend.
Judge and Jury: American Tort Law on Trial
by Alexander Tabarrok Eric HellandWith inordinate amounts of money spent in the United States on lawyers and lawsuits and multi-billion-dollar settlements growing each year, the very timely book Judge and Jury asks, "Is the tort system benefiting the public?"In Judge and Jury, the fear of litigation is shown to reduce innovations, drive physicians and manufacturers out of lawsuit-prone specialties, and increase manufacturing and consumer costs. In the courts, data from thousands of cases all over the country demonstrate that tort system awards are driven by political factors such as judicial elections, jury compositions, and the location of courts themselves. This book assembles the unprecedented findings and insights by authors Eric Helland Alexander Tabarrok, who have pioneered economic and legal research into the injustice and enormous costs created by the politicization of the tort law. Seeking to reverse the extremely harmful trends in tort law, Judge and Jury assembles innovative alternatives for reforming the tort system and charts a course toward re-establishing fair civil justice for all in the United States.
The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed
by Ivan ElandMost Americans don&’t think of their government as an empire, but in fact the United States has been steadily expanding its control of overseas territories since the turn of the twentieth century. Now, through political intimidation and over 700 military bases worldwide, the U.S. holds sway over an area that dwarfs the great empires of world history.In The Empire Has No Clothes, Ivan Eland, a leading expert on U.S. defense policy and national security, examines American military interventions around the world from the Spanish-American War to the invasion of Iraq. Eland shows that the concept of empire is wholly contrary to the principles of both liberals and conservatives and that it makes a mockery of the Founding Fathers' vision for a free republic. Eland also warns that in recent years, "blowback" and the enormous expansion of domestic federal power resulting from this overextended empire have begun to threaten the American homeland itself and curtail the very liberties these interventions were supposed to protect. Public debate of the United States' role in the world has finally begun in earnest, and Ivan Eland delivers a penetrating argument in this landmark book, exposing the imperial motives behind interventionist U.S. policy, questioning the historical assumptions on which it is based and advocating a return to the Founding Fathers' vision of military restraint overseas.
Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government
by Robert Higgs"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety," wrote Benjamin Franklin. Attempting to gain security by sacrificing liberty is also a foolish action because it only increases the potential for harm.In Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government, economist and historian Robert Higgs illustrates the false trade-off between freedom and security by showing how the U.S. government&’s economic and military interventions reduced the civil and economic liberties, prosperity, and genuine security of Americans in the 20th century. Extending the theme of Higgs&’s earlier books, Neither Liberty Nor Safety stresses the role of misguided ideas in the expansion of government power at the expense of individual liberty. Higgs illuminates not only many underappreciated aspects of the Great Depression, the two world wars, and the postwar era, but also the government&’s manipulation of public opinion and the role that ideologies play in influencing political outcomes and economic performance.
Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition
by Jeffrey A. MironA balanced and sophisticated analysis of the true costs, benefits, and consequences of enforcing drug prohibition.The "War on Drugs" claims thousands of lives every year in the United States. Each year, the U.S. government spends over $30 billion on the drug war and arrests 1.5 million American citizens on drug-related charges. There are now nearly half a million Americans imprisoned for drug offenses. The official claim is that drug prohibition deters drug use, reduces crime, and improves public health. But is this claim valid? In Drug War Crimes, Jeffrey Miron offers a balanced and sophisticated analysis of the true costs, benefits, and consequences of drug prohibition. The evidence yields a disturbing finding: the more resources given to the Drug War, the greater the homicide rate. Miron then examines various alternatives to drug prohibition and identifies the most effective solution.
Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq
by Ivan ElandCombining a history of Iraq and its dominant sects with an acute awareness of the political machinations fomenting worldwide, this keen military analysis offers a practical exit strategy for U.S. armed forces in Iraq.Since the history of violence in multi-ethno-sectarian states indicates that such conflicts usually resurface once an occupying force leaves, a solution to end the violence and stabilize the country must be geographically reasonable for sectarian groupings. Ivan Eland explains why partitioning, a solution that has been successful in other chaotic political situations, can be a uniquely effective political and military exit strategy for a country like Iraq. Finally, Dr. Eland documents fifteen lessons that can be learned from previous partitions during the 20th and 21st centuries and applies them directly to the current situation in Iraq.
Faulty Towers: Tenure and the Structure of Higher Education
by Ryan C. Amacher Roger E. MeinersIn Faulty Towers: Tenure and the Structure of Higher Education, Ryan C. Amacher and Roger E. Meiners examine the internal and external reforms necessary to bring competitive forces to American universities and thereby improve them.As debate accelerates over the declining standards in higher education, academic tenure is viewed with suspicion by many, who see it merely as job protection for incompetent teachers. Even many professors believe tenure is a guarantee of lifelong entitlement, whereby only the commission of a crime can lead to dismissal. Faulty Towers sets the record straight by elucidating the history, legal status, and common misunderstandings regarding tenure. Tenured professors who have become incompetent are rarely dismissed, and superior teaching is rarely rewarded, although there is little to prevent universities from doing so. Tough administrators are also hard to find—in part because university trustees seldom hold them accountable. Faulty Towers explains how restructuring university incentives to be more in line with those of market-based enterprises would produce greater accountability, stronger boards of trustees, more effective administrators, and a tenure system that protects academic freedom but not substandard education.