Tenured
Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education
by Roger Kimball
Reviews
Since Tenured Radicals first appeared
in 1990, it has achieved a stature as the leading critique of the ways
in which the humanities are now taught and studied in American universities.
Trenchant and witty, it lays bare the sham of what now passes for serious
academic pursuit in too many circles. In this new edition, completely reset,
Roger Kimball has brought the text up to date and has added a new Introduction.
Customer Comments
J.N. Frary (johnf6@idt.net)
from New Brunswick, NJ, USA, February 5, 1999
An indispensable historical source.
When some future historian sits down to
research his multivolume work on the history of human imbecility, he will
discover the most interesting, exotic, and vivid forms of this vast enterprise
in academia. And he will find Roger Kimball's turn-of-the-century researches
on this subject to be an indispensable source. He will also find it a pleasure
to read, which is unusual for a book which serves as a kind of catalogue
of the the nasty, silly, and futile projects of the PostMod Academic. Mind
you, Tenured Radicals is not for all contemporary readers. Many will experience
its lucidity as a highly personal insult. Others will react to its wit
with peevish resentment. Never mind. As the ancient Persian proverb tells
us, "The dogs will bark but the caravan moves on."
generalre@netscape.net from
Buffalo, NY, October 27, 1998
Must-read for tuition-paying parents...
When I read the first edition some years
ago, when I was in college myself, I wanted to stand up and cheer. This
book does an excellent job of exposing how the study of humanities has
ceased to be an academic discipline, and more of an exercise in political
posturing in Lit. and humanities departments across the nation. This book
is also a wickedly funny skewering of all those in higher ed. who perceive
their mission to be the indoctrination, rather than education, of today's
college students. I see (sadly) that in the eight years since the publication
of the 1st edition, things have only gotten worse....
Laurence Jarvik (lajarvik@erols.com)
from Washington, DC, June 12, 1998
What went wrong with American universities
Read this book to find out how universities
professing a dedication to free inquiry have become dreary factories churning
out politically correct products. Sobering reading, and sad.
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