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If you have ever attended a town meeting or business lunch, or participated in a church group or department meeting, or served on a faculty senate or maybe just watched C-SPAN, then you have likely encountered Robert’s Rules of Order. This critical edition of Henry M. Robert’s essential guide to parliamentary procedure features the original text from 1876 along with a companion essay by Christopher Loss, who artfully recounts the book’s publication and popular reception, and sheds light on its enduring value for one of the most vital bastions of democracy itself鈥攖he modern university.

Loss deftly explains why Robert’s simple, elegant handbook to democratic governance captured the imagination of so many ordinary citizens during the Gilded Age and how it has shaped the development of our colleges and universities ever since. He shows how Robert’s rules can help faculty, administrators, and students to solve problems and overcome challenges through collaboration, disciplined thinking, trust in the facts, and honesty and fairness from all sides.

At a time when people’s faith in democracy and higher education has been shaken to its core, Robert’s Rules of Order offers a powerful reminder of the importance of democratic norms and practices in American life and institutions.