The Rise—and Fall?—of Theory Journals

In "The Brief, Wondrous Life of the Theory Journal" (The Chronicle Review, October 21), Jeffrey J. Williams traces the rise of the theory journal beginning in the 1970s, buoyed not only by new ideas but also by the postwar infrastructure of higher education. That infrastructure has eroded, Williams says, and he predicts that theory journals "will become more rarefied as their readership shrinks—as the number of full-time faculty ... becomes a yet smaller fraction" of the