"The Bastion of Liberty is the first complete study of the history of the University of Leiden since 1875. Willem Otterspeer, a historian of university history, covers more than four centuries of intensive developments. Since the beginning, Leiden University has been an institution seeking the middle ground between the extremes. It has thus been an embodiment of the polder model several centuries avant la lettre. This is an engaged history, written by an author who is a member of the institution acknowledging his attachment, yet able to keep professional distance and unsparingly ironic."--book jacket.