Reitter, Paul & Chad Wellmon, Permanent Crisis: This work argues that the narrative that the humanities are in crisis is not new. This complaint has its origins in the debates that surrounded their introduction into the German university as an administratively unified body of disciplines. The book offers an impressively researched history of the role of the humanities in the modern European and American University systems. The authors set forth a cogent analysis of this history that is firmly rooted in the Weberian tradition. Reitter and Wellmon take the reader beyond the usual anxiety and complaints about the status of the humanities to seeing “crisis” as an integral part of the self-definition of the humanities that has arisen from their practice in the university context. This book will be of interest to anyone who cares about the humanities and their place in the university. [recommended by Jason West, Newman Theological College]