This critical appraisal of North American doctoral programs contends that the degree is a seriously flawed academic institution. Recent scholarship and personal experiences are utilized to illustrate the contention that doctoral programs are inflexible, cumbersome, restrictive and wasteful, and, in most fields, do more harm than good. The history of the Ph.D. degree is traced, with an emphasis on the Canadian experience, and three major problems are identified: the length of time such programs take, the paucity of successful candidates, and rewards that are not commensurate with the time, energy and money involved in obtaining the degree. The crisis is considered to be particularly acute in the social sciences and humanities, partly because of variant and imprecise methodologies that delay doctoral committees and doctoral candidates. Because of the values and skills required to succeed in such programs, they may, it is felt, be undermining scholarly excellence. Three appendices are provided: a summary of the most recent findings (subsequent to the first printing of the book), "The Grad School Numbers Game" (a comment on costs and enrollments), and "The Rejuvenated Mastership." References are provided at the conclusion of each chapter. (KM)