American ambivalence toward academic freedom

Abstract

Why are U.S. academics, even after tenure and promotion, so timid in their exercise of academic freedom? Part of the problem is institutionalacademics are subject to a long probationary period under tight collegial controlbut part of the problem is ideological. A hybrid of seventeenth-century British and nineteenth-century German ideals, U.S. academiaand the nation more generallyremains ambivalent toward the value of academic freedom, ultimately inhibiting an unequivocal endorsement.