Nancy J. Hirschmann

Extract

Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus. By Donald Alexander Downs. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 318p. $28.99 cloth, $19.99 paper.

The stated themes of Donald Downs's book are ones with which most readers of this journal will be sympathetic: Intellectual freedom is the most important commodity academics have; it is under siege on a variety of fronts; some of these fronts might appear innocent but are often only the thin edge of the wedge; and faculty must recognize these threats and organize themselves to resist. This is a timely reminder, for there are many threats to academic freedom facing us today: Campus Watch, which has posted online the dossiers of professors who supposedly sympathize with Islamic terrorists and encourages students to “inform” on their professors for alleged anti-American sentiments; David Horowitz's so-called academic bill of rights, which targets professors who supposedly display that favorite shibboleth of the right wing, “liberal bias”; the Patriot Act; and government surveillance and wiretapping. Moreover, the strength of these efforts to suppress speech is frightening: Well funded, but not very thoughtful, they often hijack the truth in vitriolic hatred of academics.