Review

The Shadow University

According to this frightening expose of the reign of terror of "political correctness" at our colleges: "Universities have become the enemy of a free society, and it is time for the citizens of that society to ...hold these institutions to account."

This book is a carefully researched horror file of assaults on free speech and of kangaroo-court trials. "Half a century after the defeat of Nazism" – the authors .write – "our universities distinguish by blood and equate blood with culture."

You will find it hard to believe how closely the intellectual and political atmosphere of our campuses resembles that of a totalitarian dictatorship. The book presents case after case of students persecuted by universities for their views, being forced to attend brainwashing "sensitivity seminars, " where they are pressured to denounce themselves publicly for being "oppressors of minorities. " And because an arbitrary accusation is enough for the accused to be expelled or fired without a proper trial, students and professors live in constant fear.

The authors understand that beneath the baseless charges of racism, sexism and homophobia lies a profound attack on individualism: "Our institutions of higher learning greet freshman not as individuals on the threshold of adulthood, but as embodiments of group identity...who are to be infantilized at every turn. In a nation whose soul depends upon the values of individual rights and responsibilities and upon equal justice under law, our students are being educated in so-called group rights and responsibilities, and in double standards to redress partisan definitions of historical wrongs."

But The Shadow University is not simply a horror file; it is also a passionate call to action. Kors and Silverglate urge the victims of political correctness to fight back through lawsuits and publicity. "The great cause at American universities should be nothing less than the emancipation of students from the partisan and authoritarian regimes under which they live."

(415 pages)

This review is courtesy of and copyright © by the Ayn Rand Bookstore.

Books

• The Shadow University, The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses by Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate.