[It’s been a bit since I dedicated a blog series to highlighting great new scholarly books—so this week I’m dedicating a blog series to highlighting great new scholarly books. Please add more recommendations, new, old, and anywhere in between, in comments!]
One of the
most frustrating misunderstandings in our current social and political
conversations (a very competitive category, of course) has to do with where and
from whom the threats to free speech in higher education are coming: many of
our narratives suggest those threats come from the “intolerant left”; while I
would argue that the far, far more widespread and influential
such threats come from conservative critics. And that’s not a new
phenomenon, as historian Lauren Lassabe Shepherd argues in her vital new book Resistance
from the Right: Conservatives & the Campus Wars in Modern America. Shepherd
connects mid-20th century debates and forces to our own moment and
climate with nuance and complexity, while making an unassailable case for what’s
really been happening in and to higher ed for more than half a century. If you
read one book about higher education this Fall, make it Resistance from the Right!
Next book
rec tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other books or publications you’d recommend?
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