Leaders and the universities

Geitner Simmons has posted some thoughts on Elizabeth I and her progresses, including this quote from Paul Johnson's Elizabeth I: A Study in Power and Intellect:

The government took extraordinary care in arranging her visits to the universities. It was considered vital that the regime should be popular, and the sovereign venerated, in the seats of learning.

Though it is tempting to draw facile contrasts with the current American presidency, Elizabeth surely found it much easier to charm and flatter her way into the good graces of academia than would George W. Bush today. That said, the politicization of the academy would seem to have weakened rather than strengthened professorial authority on matters extramural, at least here in the USA.

Posted by David on May 13, 2003 10:50 AM