Research universities are unique in American education in the degree to which they are sensitive to policies of the national government. According to Robert Rosenzweig, it is impossible to understand the recent past, the present, and the future of the university without understanding the political process that determines those policies--including the various ways universities have tried, with mixed results, to shape them to their own ends.

In The Political University, the former Stanford administrator and president of the Association of American Universities offers an...