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Indoctrination U:The Left's War Against Academic Freedom
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Indoctrination U:The Left's War Against Academic Freedom |
Author: David Horowitz
Published: 2007-03-25 |
List price: $21.95
Our price: $21.51
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As of: November 20th, 2008 05:37:14 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Interesting Concept, But Flawed as Presented
The author has proposed, and fought for an Academic Bill of Rights that he hopes would be adopted by colleges and universities across the country to, as he states, stop bias from being introduced into college classrooms. That is a lofty and noble goal that should be instituted and I fully support the concept, if it applies to ALL colleges and universities.
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br /The author, however, implies by his lack of inclusion, that just such a Bill of Rights is needed at conservative colleges. He focuses solely on "liberal" colleges and denies that indoctrination is happening at conservative schools too. However, if you look up the courses listed at conservative schools, you will find just the same type of indoctrination occurring at the schools that he defends. One such college, with a religious affiliation, requires a course of all students, including biology majors, in evangelicalism for Christians. If the goal of the author is, as he states so many times, to teach students how to think, and not what to think, then he should be just as upset with schools that teach classes in religious dogma.
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br /In addition, the author seems to be rather upset by the reception he has received at many of these "liberal" colleges. While I support freedom of speech, and believe both sides should be presented at the college level to allow students to decide on facts, I don't believe you can be a bomb thrower and not expect to get hit by a little shrapnel now and again. And, this author certainly has a reputation as a bomb thrower (in the verbal, not literal, sense).
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br /How can the author be upset at frosty receptions at liberal schools when the same happens at conservative schools? I am fairly certain the reaction of students would be the same at the arrival of major liberals at highly conservative schools.
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br /Finally, I found it highly disingenuous that most of the footnotes lead right back to previous work by the author. Quoting oneself as a source may be good for the ego, but is hardly a standard tolerated in truly academic work.
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br /While I think the passage of the Academic Bill of Rights is a wonderful idea I have problems with the presentation by this author. If he truly wishes to see this passed at the level he is seeking, he needs to find a torch bearer with a little less baggage and who is a whole lot more neutral.
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 It's Obvious
Is there really anyone still blind to the manifest reality of the herd mentality of crypto-Marxists -- and their intimidation tactics -- in this nation's universities? As a former Trotskyist myself (during my, admittedly, mis-spent youth) I can testify, from personal experience, to the increasingly claustrophobic "politically-correct" atmosphere of what currently passes for "free speech" in the domains of our allegedly educational institutions. The only people who are disturbed by David Horowitz's book are the people who see their own double-standards and illiberal "liberalism" criticized in its pages.
 The man's a crackpot
I am proud to exercise my real academic freedom as a professor emerita to say Mr. David Horowitz is a crackpot hell-bent on quashing the most valuable resource in academe -- experienced and bright professors who offer a legitimate point of view. The intolerance Mr. H ascribes to professors reflects poorly on him. And if you buy this book, you are funding efforts to destroy the freedom that this country was founded on.
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br /Mary Kelly-Durkin
Indoctrination Instead of Education
David Horowitz' "Indoctrination U" is not so much a litany of documented instances of academic abuse in the college ranks as it is an apology for his Academic Bill of Rights. Although he gives some examples of how activist professors abuse their charges with unwarranted political ideology, the book is more a refutation of the irrational, knee-jerk responses propagated by the Bill's detractors.
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br /Horowitz effectively conveys the frustration he feels in being unable to break through the liberal "ivory tower" of academe to convince anybody that a) there is a problem, and b) he's got the fix for it - even though the "fix" is simply reinstating the standards of conduct and scholarship agreed upon by college and university professors back in the 1940's.
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br /The liberal academic establishment's adamant refusal to even revert back to the standards of the 1940's is explained succinctly by Horowitz when he writes: "The explanation lay in the opposition's determination to defend ground it had seized over a thirty-year march through the institutions; its political agendas required the abuses. It was because academic activists wanted to establish doctrinal orthodoxies in America's liberal arts colleges that they had declared war even on liberal proposals for reform."
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br /To the uninitiated, the examples given in this book will shock the reader as to the desperate state of not only college and university education, but K - 12 education as well.
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Some useful information about some unsavory folks, but heavily biased
As a former Communist himself, its interesting to see Horowitz claim that the "liberals" (a rather nebulous term) are running the show in universities. Granted, many top schools are anti-Christian/anti-traditional morals and anti-religious in general, they are not completely lost.
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br /While Horowitz may claim to have denounced communism, he still retains a streak of Trotskyite sentiment. On the question of Just War Theory this guy can only be described as a Jewish fascist (yes, a problematic term, I know). Through his online site frontpagemag and now through this book he's tried to portray anyone that doesn't want to invade Iraq, Syria, Iran and just about the rest of the Middle East as terrorists. Simply put, he's to the right of the most right-wing of Israel's hawks and that's saying something. (emphasis added!)
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br /McCarthyism is alive and well with this Horowitz tract, its a shame, he could have made a decent and balanced book but he turned out a real stinker with a few exceptions.
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