No one is happy with the state of the humanities; the dominant characterization of the problem by humanists themselves is crisis. Indeed, as Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon point out in Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age, humanists have been describing their disciplines as in crisis for the better part of two centuries. The word “crisis,” they note, appeals to humanists because it cast them as defenders of “the human” against the degrading forces of modernity, from natural science to capitalism. If the humanities are in crisis, it is because they fight the good fight against overwhelming odds.