The UnCivil University
Intolerance on College Campuses
By (author) Gary A. Tobin, Aryeh Kaufmann Weinberg, Jenna Ferer
Publication date:
16 May 2009Length of book:
336 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
239x161mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780739132661
In the name of academic freedom, the core values of higher education—honest scholarship, unbiased research, and diversity of thought and person—have been corrupted by an academy more interested in preserving its privileges than in protecting its own integrity. The American university has lost its civility. Nowhere is this loss more apparent than in the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on college campuses. This book documents the alarming rise in bigotry and bullying in the academy, using a range of evidence from first-hand accounts of intimidation of students by anti-Israel professors to anti-Semitic articles in student newspapers and marginalization of pro-Israel scholars. The UnCivil University exposes the unspoken world of double standards, bureaucratic paralysis, and abdication of leadership that not only allows but often supports a vocal minority of extremists on campus.
The UnCivil University is one of those rare books that shines a light on a problem that many have been too blind to see or too ashamed to acknowledge—namely, the rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on the American college campus. Gary Tobin and his colleagues document this troubling development with meticulous care, showing how at many leading universities a small but aggressive minority has succeeded in sowing hatred for Israel and hostility toward Jewish students and faculty who dare to defend the only free and democratic state in the Middle East. This is a timely book, because the agents of bigotry and unreason on the campus have advanced very far toward their goal of closing down enlightened debate on the future of the Middle East. If they succeed, all of us—Jews and gentiles alike—who believe in the ideals of pluralism and rational discourse will be the losers. The publication of this volume represents an important step in restoring a civil and enlightened university.