Tuesday, October 24, 2023

October 24, 2023: New Scholarly Books: Resistance from the Right

[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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