Microcosmographia Academica ("A Study of a Tiny Academic World" in Latin) is a short pamphlet on university politics written by F. M. Cornford and published in 1908.
It has acquired a small cult following as a pessimistic view of academic politics presented in a readable and lively style, and is best known for its discussion of such principles as "The (Thin End of the) Wedge" and "The Dangerous Precedent": The book is also known for Cornford's definition, in the preface to a later edition, of propaganda as: "that branch of the art of lying which consists in very nearly deceiving your friends without quite deceiving your enemies".
[1] Although written for an audience familiar with the procedures of the University of Cambridge at the turn of the twentieth century, it could apply to any political system and is similar to the British television comedy Yes Minister; some of the dialogue in the "Doing the Honours" episode closely follows its text.
Cornford [was] a witty Cambridge academic of the Edwardian period who had become used to every possible High Table euphemism and Senior Common Room obfuscation.
Since the stone-axe fell into disuse at the close of the neolithic age, two other arguments of universal application have been added to the rhetorical armoury by the ingenuity of mankind.