David Horowitz slammed in new book by academic critic
David Horowitz, once a Marxist theoretician and Black Panther enthusiast, is now a right-wing political activist whose main target is academia. Leftists dominate American university faculties, Horowitz believes, and they use tenure and control over the classroom to propagate anti-American extremism. His "Academic Bill of Rights," which states that students should be graded and professors hired without reference to their political or religious beliefs, has inspired legislation in 18 states.
Since right-wing critics like Horowitz focus so much on left-wing English departments, it is appropriate that Michael Bérubé, who teaches literature at Penn State, has become Horowitz's most engaged critic. In "What's Liberal About the Liberal Arts?" Bérubé comes off as spunky, likable and anything but a left-wing extremist — you won't find him defending the truth-telling courage of Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor who referred to 9/11 victims as "little Eichmanns" — and he convinces me that Horowitz is as unpleasant as he is ungracious. But he does not persuade me that Horowitz is wrong.
Read entire article at Alan Wolfe in the Sunday NYT Book Review
Since right-wing critics like Horowitz focus so much on left-wing English departments, it is appropriate that Michael Bérubé, who teaches literature at Penn State, has become Horowitz's most engaged critic. In "What's Liberal About the Liberal Arts?" Bérubé comes off as spunky, likable and anything but a left-wing extremist — you won't find him defending the truth-telling courage of Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor who referred to 9/11 victims as "little Eichmanns" — and he convinces me that Horowitz is as unpleasant as he is ungracious. But he does not persuade me that Horowitz is wrong.