FWIW, I’m not a Chicago exceptionalist. I think there are particular moments in which particular universities occupy particular niches – sometimes by design, sometimes by default, often by a combination of both. It’s not a genetic theory – it’s a theory of institutional culture. Institutional culture changes in part because of who comes and who leaves. It’s rarely monolithic. And no individual is simply a product of it – especially academics, who have generally been educated in a variety of different places (starting at home!) long before they become profs.