Summary

A Long History of Capitulation begins with Naomi regretting the need to change her clothing style, informed by her years as an AmeriCorps VISTA worker and then as a professor of feminist theory, to a wardrobe fit for a college president. She then thinks over the recent tenure decisions of various departments; many departments had chosen to tenure young, talented professors, but the anthropology department had declined tenure to a Nicholas Gall, who, despite being very popular with students, only published one monograph over many years, which was then found to have plagiarized sections.

Naomi then meets with Douglas Sidgwick, who works in research for the Webster administration. Naomi believes that Douglas is “squarely in the Asperger’s zone of the autism spectrum” (71). Douglas teaches Naomi about Webster’s historical relationship with Native Americans...