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Marxism Thriving on American Campuses
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12337 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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1 / 1987 |
3,794 Words |
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Herbert London
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Most people don't take Marxist studies seriously - not even academics, who are disinclined to accept its methodology and prescriptions. Yet while this statement is true, it is certainly not the whole truth. The strides made by Marxism at American universities in the last two decades are breathtaking. Every discipline has been affected by its preachment, and almost every faculty now counts among its members a resident Marxist scholar.
According to the editors of The Left Academy, four Marxist inspired textbooks on American government were published between 1970 and 1982. Before then, there were none. In the same period, three of the most prestigious university publishers, Cambridge, Oxford, and Princeton, issued books on Marx and Marxism, almost all of them quite sympathetic. There are more than 400 courses offered today on American campuses in Marxist philosophy; in the 1960s only a handful were being taught.
In addition, two self-declared Marxist historians, Eugene Genovese and William A. Williams, were elected president of the Organization of American Historians in successive elections, and Louis Kampf, a radical with Marxist predilections, was elected president of the Modern Language Association.
Although none of these Marxist intellectuals would claim to be using his professional eminence to subvert American political institutions, their academic success tells much about American university life. American universities have gone from discriminating against revolutionary socialists to embracing them as professional spokesmen.
When Secretary of Education William J. Bennett said he believes that " a significant body of opinion" had developed on college campuses that "openly rejects the democratic ethic," his comment was greeted by skepticism. John Chandler, president of the Association of American Colleges and former president of Williams College, said: "The situation he [Bennett] describes was a much more pronounced problem in the late sixties and early seventies than it is today."
Chandler's statement apparently refers to the egregious displays of student intolerance during that period. Admittedly, more disruption was going on in the sixties than today, but that observation overlooks the extent to which Marxist courses have become a legitimate part of the college curriculum. In this sense, Bennett's concern about campus radicals at war with society and "raising a revolutionary consciousness" may be more pertinent now than in the turbulent sixties.
Professors more liberal
In the period from 1967 to 1975, student disruptions were a rite of spring. Certainly student attitudes have changed. Increasing numbers have become conservative and even larger numbers have become apolitical. But this is only one side of a complex picture. There are many faculty members with Marxist or radical predilections who are indeed at war with society, or at the very least, with the Reagan government. As survey data by E.G. Ladd, S.M. Lipset, and the Carnegie Commission Report on Higher Education suggest, faculty members identify themselves as distinctly more liberal and somewhat more radical than the population at large. These people are now ensconced as senior members of our faculties with all the perquisites of academic
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