ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book talks about some intention while on sabbatical to update Richard Easterlin's 1995 paper on the absolute and relative rise of undergraduate enrolments in business programmes in the US. It looks at how different countries (and institutions) define the humanities differently. The humanities are often treated as if no other discipline exists and the 'crisis' is an event unrelated to the fortunes of any other discipline. In Britain the humanities have been cast in opposition to the sciences since well before C. P. Snow's work. The book focuses on quantitative measures of 'crisis', the concept of 'crisis' could also be examined qualitatively. It suggests that a close examination of syllabi and pedagogy rather than simply how many students complete a humanities major could determine whether a crisis exists.
