Gone for good: tales of university life after the golden age, Oxford University Press, 1999
I wrote most of Gone for Good in 1997 while teaching in Venice, Italy. It was a great place to avoid distractions and just write. The book sold decently. In its heyday it was an Amazon top 1000 seller. Nowadays you can buy it on Amazon used for a buck.
There were all kinds of rumors going around Duke about why I wrote Gone for Good. The most common was that I wrote it because I was angry that it had taken me so long to get tenure. That was an odd rumor. I actually received tenure one year early.
Duke is one of those places where rumor mongering is rampant. As someone in Duke administration once told me, "I'm afraid to go to the bathroom because I might miss something." It could get ugly and very personal. Some of the rumors that circulated about me were so nasty - drug use, marriage problems, etc. - that I wondered, "What kind of hell am I working in?"
Be that as it may, I wrote Gone for Good with a simple purpose: to advocate for reform in higher ed. Looking back, I didn't succeed in changing a thing. But it was still worth writing. You can find more info on the book here. I won't be writing a sequel.