The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America

This guy, Horowitz, wrote this book about a bunch of rad ball professors who've written a lot of stuff that makes fascists like him angry. His brain worms dug so deep that he assembled everything into this handy dandy author list for us all; truly a must read. Although the reading quality and research that went into the book isn't exactly well put together, I can forgive him on account of the festering creepy crawlies in his head.

What the professors included in this volume have in common are: (1) "promotion far beyond academic achievement," (2) "teaching subjects outside [their] professional qualifications", (3) "making racist and ethnically disparaging remarks in public without eliciting reaction by university administrators, as long as those remarks are directed at unprotected groups", (4) "overt introduction of political agendas into the classroom" (p. xxiii). They are preponderantly in "studies" departments, literature, education, journalism, law, criminology, history, and sociology but are present in psychology, arts, religion, and even philosophy. "The source of the radicals' power was their willingness to deploy the weapon of victimhood to stigmatize and silence their intellectual opposition." (p. 372). An indication of the pervasiveness of the 101 professors is: "They are the authors of books widely used as texts." "They have been funded by prestigious foundations." They are and have been "department chairs and directors of academic institutes", and "heads of large professional associations." (p. xxx). Most ominously, professors in "Studies" programs are allowed to teach courses in the regular academic departments. "This sample is but the tip of an academic iceberg, and it would have been no problem to provide a thousand such profiles or even ten times the number." (p. xxv). Empirical research has documented that the transformation began roughly thirty years ago. For example, "over the course of fifteen years, self-described liberals grew from a slight plurality to a five-to-one majority." (p xxxv). At Colorado, Stanford and Berkeley, ratio of liberal to conservative faculty is 30-1. (If you want to know how this transformation came about, read The Rape of Alma Mater (N), a book by an insider, which Horowitz was not.) If you need proof of the abysmal state of education, read the one-star reviews - not only of this book but of any book.

It is obvious that many people do not like to have any challenge to the extremism existing in some colleges. Thats why there so many one star reviews of this book by people who obviously have not read it. While I don't always agree with the author's point of view, this is an intersting book and points out what one may be exposed to at colleges. Many professors seek indoctrination not education and free and open discussions of issues often are not allowed (if you oppose any position of some professors, you are considered a "hate monger"). I had a few crazed professors in the 1970s, but nothing as terrible as Ward Churchill or some of the others exposed in this book. I enjoyed the book and thought it was very readable. I do not think these 101 professors are representative of all college professors, most of whom are very good and seek to provide an education. This book does provide a fair warning for what is out there and takes the lid off of some often closely held secrets.

Maligned, misunderstood, misquoted -- mostly by those who haven't read the book. The book is more of a report than an essay. It is the result of straightforward research, with tabular findings, without the artifice of statistical modeling. Any person can check the facts presented herein. It is a RED FLAG (pun intended). An urgent read, especially by parents. I bought extra copies as gifts. If one were to perform the research entailed here, or hire it to be done, it would cost many times what it is selling for.

David Horowitz's newest book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. Horowitz edited and rewrote many of these entries, some of which originally appeared on a website devoted to uncloaking the identities and activities of the political left. The Professors is a compendium rather than a woven narrative, but its pages are always informative and occasionally quite stunning. In these short, appalling mini-biographies we are made privy to the belief systems of those most responsible for the decline of the American university. Many of these academics were veterans of the counter-cultural experiment that was the 1960s, and they began their long march through the institutions after reaching adulthood. By blocking the hiring of their ideological opposition, they have created an environment wherein long disproven theories like Marxism and post-modernism are able to still flourish and emit their poison into the greater culture. Their devotion to power and control may be totalitarian but it certainly has been effective. By denying that there is such a thing as "objectivity" they are able to repudiate the need to search for truth and turn their sections into clubs for aspiring radicals. They then excuse their actions by declaring their "engagement" and that teaching of all forms is "a political act." Veritas is replaced with opinion while students receive credit for attending rallies and writing papers about why George W. Bush is a war criminal. The worst abuses occur in the liberal arts departments which are held prisoner to the race, gender, and class religion. Nowhere is the anti-intellectualism of these academics more prominently on display than in their racism. They claim to be "liberals," but the depth of their race-based hatred is startling. Obviously the left will avoid reviewing this work. From my past dealings with them I believe they will summarily dismiss The Professors by labeling it a McCarthyist blacklist plot, and also that those figures discussed are in no way characteristic of college faculties on the whole. Let me respond to the possible McCarthyist objection first. Although "Naming Names" is best practice in regards to university bias, David Horowitz does not have the power to blacklist anyone. What this work accomplishes is to merely give notice to those leftists who disguise themselves as "liberal" and excuse their propagandize with the phrase, "everything's political," that we're ready to highlight and respond to their transgressions. Identification should allow some students to avoid being subjected to their machinations. Hopefully, more and more moderates will become aware of the brainwashing in store for their children, and boycott colleges which allow lecturers to confuse activism for instruction. As for representativeness, Horowitz addresses this question in his third chapter. He convincingly postulates that universities are conformist by nature and that faculties are formed in the image of those