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The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America
Bestselling author David Horowitz reveals a shocking and perverse culture of academics who are poisoning the minds of today's college students. The Professors is a wake-up call to all those who assume that a college education is sans hatred of America and the American military and support for America's terrorist enemies.
450 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2006
12 people are currently reading
381 people want to read
About the author
David Horowitz
187 books338 followersDavid Joel Horowitz was an American conservative writer and activist. He was a founder and president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center's website FrontPage Magazine; and director of Discover the Networks, a website that tracks individuals and groups on the political left. Horowitz also founded the organization Students for Academic Freedom.
Horowitz wrote several books with author Peter Collier, including four on prominent 20th-century American families. He and Collier have collaborated on books about cultural criticism. Horowitz worked as a columnist for Salon.
From 1956 to 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left. He later rejected progressive ideas and became a defender of neoconservatism. Horowitz recounted his ideological journey in a series of retrospective books, culminating with his 1996 memoir Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey.
Horowitz wrote several books with author Peter Collier, including four on prominent 20th-century American families. He and Collier have collaborated on books about cultural criticism. Horowitz worked as a columnist for Salon.
From 1956 to 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left. He later rejected progressive ideas and became a defender of neoconservatism. Horowitz recounted his ideological journey in a series of retrospective books, culminating with his 1996 memoir Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 18, 2009
I promise to give this 5 stars if Horowitz puts me in it. I've got the credentials, man! I once tongue-kissed William Ayers in a closet, during a make-out party.
January 16, 2012
I think the ideological loyalties of the author are just as revealing as that of his subjects. Someone could easily write a book about economic professors indoctrinating students into accepting the ethos and logic of capitalism.
Everybody has a bias. Most of the people in this book were upfront about their biases. It's people who claim to have no biases, who claim to be to do purely objective, value-free, disinterested scholarship who are dangerous.
Everybody has a bias. Most of the people in this book were upfront about their biases. It's people who claim to have no biases, who claim to be to do purely objective, value-free, disinterested scholarship who are dangerous.
March 6, 2007
David Horowitz was born in 1939 to a Jewish family in Forest Hills, New York. His parents, Phil and Blanche Horowitz, were school-teachers in Sunnyside Gardens, in the borough of Queens in New York City. Horowitz attended Columbia University and later the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a master's degree in English literature.
His parents were long-standing members of the Communist Party. While still identifying as a Marxist, Horowitz, along with many other left wing figures of his generation, sought to distance itself from totalitarian regimes such as Soviet Union. Horowitz was employed during the 1960s as a political aide to Bertrand Russell.[1] Horowitz at this time was a close friend and associate of the Marxist historian, Isaac Deutscher. Horowitz wrote a biography of Deutscher in 1971.
After returning to the U.S. in 1968, he authored several books that were influential in New Left critiques of American society and particularly its foreign policy, including The Free World Colossus: A Critique of American Foreign Policy in the Cold War. Horowitz was an editor at the influential New Left magazine, Ramparts.
Horowitz was a confidant of Black Panthers leader Huey P. Newton, and provided legal and financial assistance to the black revolutionary organization. He would later cite experiences with his involvement in the Panthers as the primary catalyst for reassessing his views. In December of 1974, his close friend Betty Van Patter, a bookkeeper for the Panthers, was murdered. While the case officially went unsolved, Horowitz has maintained that the Panthers were responsible for her murder, committed in order to silence Van Patter from revealing the organization's financial corruption, and thereafter covered up the killing.
Other events that Horowitz cites as being influential in his political realignment were the impacts of the US loss in the Vietnam War on the peoples of Indochina, and particularly Cambodia, which under the leadership of the Khmer Rouge experienced mass terror and famine, leading to millions of deaths. Horowitz believes that the far left turned a blind eye to such atrocities because the ideological vision of the Communists was one which they shared. The reactions ranged from disinterest to apologia, exemplified by George Hildebrand and Gareth Porter's Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution, which presented a much more favorable depiction of life under the Khmer Rouge than later came to be accepted.
Along with close associate Peter Collier (political author), Horowitz hosted a 1987 "Second Thoughts Conference" in Washington, D.C., described by left-wing figure Sidney Blumenthal in The Washington Post as his "coming out" as a supporter of the right. His gradual shift to the right has been recounted in a series of memoirs and retrospectives, culminating in Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey, published in 1996.
His parents were long-standing members of the Communist Party. While still identifying as a Marxist, Horowitz, along with many other left wing figures of his generation, sought to distance itself from totalitarian regimes such as Soviet Union. Horowitz was employed during the 1960s as a political aide to Bertrand Russell.[1] Horowitz at this time was a close friend and associate of the Marxist historian, Isaac Deutscher. Horowitz wrote a biography of Deutscher in 1971.
After returning to the U.S. in 1968, he authored several books that were influential in New Left critiques of American society and particularly its foreign policy, including The Free World Colossus: A Critique of American Foreign Policy in the Cold War. Horowitz was an editor at the influential New Left magazine, Ramparts.
Horowitz was a confidant of Black Panthers leader Huey P. Newton, and provided legal and financial assistance to the black revolutionary organization. He would later cite experiences with his involvement in the Panthers as the primary catalyst for reassessing his views. In December of 1974, his close friend Betty Van Patter, a bookkeeper for the Panthers, was murdered. While the case officially went unsolved, Horowitz has maintained that the Panthers were responsible for her murder, committed in order to silence Van Patter from revealing the organization's financial corruption, and thereafter covered up the killing.
Other events that Horowitz cites as being influential in his political realignment were the impacts of the US loss in the Vietnam War on the peoples of Indochina, and particularly Cambodia, which under the leadership of the Khmer Rouge experienced mass terror and famine, leading to millions of deaths. Horowitz believes that the far left turned a blind eye to such atrocities because the ideological vision of the Communists was one which they shared. The reactions ranged from disinterest to apologia, exemplified by George Hildebrand and Gareth Porter's Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution, which presented a much more favorable depiction of life under the Khmer Rouge than later came to be accepted.
Along with close associate Peter Collier (political author), Horowitz hosted a 1987 "Second Thoughts Conference" in Washington, D.C., described by left-wing figure Sidney Blumenthal in The Washington Post as his "coming out" as a supporter of the right. His gradual shift to the right has been recounted in a series of memoirs and retrospectives, culminating in Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey, published in 1996.
May 13, 2015
Horowitz presents the claim that because professor across the country disagree with his views, the university system as a whole is corrupt. In the introduction, he assures the reader that he could easily come up with another thousand or even ten thousand professors if he so wished. Point is, plenty of highly-educated individuals share views such as
* Blind nationalism isn't great
* White people have advantages in the US
* The Iraq War may not have been justified
While he does point out some rather extreme views such as support of genocide, he advertises the book as being full of people as extreme as that but then goes on to dismiss anyone with an even somewhat critical view of the popular American narrative.
Horowitz presents himself, then, as a journalist who knows better than thousands of people who study their fields for a living. He's praise by other non-researchers such as Laura Ingraham and various legislators.
Initially I found some of the examples intriguing. Yes, some of American has been repurposed to the study of peace and social justice, but his presentation just comes across as sour.
* Blind nationalism isn't great
* White people have advantages in the US
* The Iraq War may not have been justified
While he does point out some rather extreme views such as support of genocide, he advertises the book as being full of people as extreme as that but then goes on to dismiss anyone with an even somewhat critical view of the popular American narrative.
Horowitz presents himself, then, as a journalist who knows better than thousands of people who study their fields for a living. He's praise by other non-researchers such as Laura Ingraham and various legislators.
Initially I found some of the examples intriguing. Yes, some of American has been repurposed to the study of peace and social justice, but his presentation just comes across as sour.
January 9, 2013
With books like this, being an incredibly large list, it can be hard to digest the amount of information presented. Needless to say, I found the book quite informative and in support of what I already knew and had experienced from my own college years.
I graduated from a small satellite college and even there, found that many of the social science/liberal arts professors were not always opaque about their political views. Math teachers and hard science professors were more likely to keep their politics to themselves.
While some of these professors may no longer be employed in these establishments, certainly many are still out there, teaching an agenda that does not positively view any other political viewpoint other than their own.
It is good for a reference, but not as something to digest all at once, more to scan and peruse at leisure.
Horowitz may or may not be impartial, but certainly has the perspective of both major political parties in this country, now a conservative and formerly a communist.
He outlines the most radical liberal professors in the country at the major or semi-major university institutions that people go to. He details the work, or even the lack thereof, that these professors do, what they teach to college age youths, and the agendas that they often push, ie. capitalism is the root of all over economic woes, socialism is a better, kinder system, conservative thought and speakers are vile and poisonous to your mind. Rather than present both sides of the argument, these teachers are shown to be inconsiderate, intolerant, and ridiculously narrow minded.
After reading this, I certainly have to agree with Ray Bradbury that you may not necessarily need college.
I know I am biased, but if you want a different point of view on the academics in this country at our nation's higher learning institutions, give this a try. You can always put it down and walk away if you don't like it.
Cheers, Mr. Horowitz, Cheers.
I graduated from a small satellite college and even there, found that many of the social science/liberal arts professors were not always opaque about their political views. Math teachers and hard science professors were more likely to keep their politics to themselves.
While some of these professors may no longer be employed in these establishments, certainly many are still out there, teaching an agenda that does not positively view any other political viewpoint other than their own.
It is good for a reference, but not as something to digest all at once, more to scan and peruse at leisure.
Horowitz may or may not be impartial, but certainly has the perspective of both major political parties in this country, now a conservative and formerly a communist.
He outlines the most radical liberal professors in the country at the major or semi-major university institutions that people go to. He details the work, or even the lack thereof, that these professors do, what they teach to college age youths, and the agendas that they often push, ie. capitalism is the root of all over economic woes, socialism is a better, kinder system, conservative thought and speakers are vile and poisonous to your mind. Rather than present both sides of the argument, these teachers are shown to be inconsiderate, intolerant, and ridiculously narrow minded.
After reading this, I certainly have to agree with Ray Bradbury that you may not necessarily need college.
I know I am biased, but if you want a different point of view on the academics in this country at our nation's higher learning institutions, give this a try. You can always put it down and walk away if you don't like it.
Cheers, Mr. Horowitz, Cheers.
May 23, 2016
very maddening that so many non-professors are in our colleges and that so much non-academic material is being taught
February 26, 2010
Incredible volume of facts and scary people. Makes you want to turn in your degree and go to school somewhere else.
November 19, 2012
Very enlightening. Very.
December 8, 2013
Marketplace of ideas. I would prefer a book on intellectual diversity than calling out particular professors.
Read
July 9, 2007These professors apparently were hired to teach students grassroots politics. I think this is a good idea because, students need to hear all angles about any issue. I like this book. It gave me something to think about. I am not ultra liberal nor ultra conservative. I am in the middle.
January 15, 2015
Communists, traitors, rapists, murderers, cheaters, liars and more. All teaching your children at colleges throughout the U.S. Wow.
April 10, 2016
One of my chief disappointments is that I didn't make the list. Gotta try harder I guess.
January 21, 2022
It took me awhile to read this book. It is shocking to realize how much ideological proselytization is going on on leading schools across the U.S. Well, at least I believe it used to. I’m in the academia as well and believe a lot has changed since this book was written. Not that such type of professors have become less dangerous, but as Ginsberg already pout out, “the faculty has fallen.” The author did an incredible job! I just read the book only too late!
December 24, 2013
Hey, want to read a book to make you scared of academics, one two-page bio at a time? If so, here's your book. Otherwise, feel free to move past this one and pick up Glenn Beck's latest.
In 'The Professors', David Horowitz had outsourced about 3/4 of his research to a team of like minded individuals, culminating in a finished book that contains a brief highlight of some of America's most "dangerous" academics. Certainly, several of the bios provided are disturbing, but, being somewhat left leaning, I didn't object to most the activities that Mr. Horowitz finds so offensive. I also found it curious that he accidentally omitted any activist or incompetent professors from the right. Where is his indignation about Christian law schools who have plainly stated their intentions to flood the field with their indoctrinated graduates?
The long and short of it is that academy is like any field. There are certified wackos of any extreme. Perhaps more of the wackos in this field are liberal, but most of the wackos in business are probably conservative. So, who's doing the most damage? And really, who cares? Extremism is a bad idea whatever your politics. Horowitz wants to flame a visceral hatred for the left's "indoctrination", so he can make the case for quotas based on political persuasion, not to rid the field of indoctrination, mind you, but simply to make the indoctrination more agreeable to his own politics.
The best I can say is that the length of each profile will make you feel like a speedy reader, as you can get through several in even a short sitting. Other than that, the book feels awfully angry and doesn't really accomplish much in the end. Horowitz wants you to be afraid, but hopefully, you're reading this book because you like to challenge yourself with new ideas and think critically, both of which would make you less susceptible to these evil professors attempts to turn you. Education isn't evil. Your kids are safe. Keep challenging your own ideas and beliefs. And don't be angry.
In 'The Professors', David Horowitz had outsourced about 3/4 of his research to a team of like minded individuals, culminating in a finished book that contains a brief highlight of some of America's most "dangerous" academics. Certainly, several of the bios provided are disturbing, but, being somewhat left leaning, I didn't object to most the activities that Mr. Horowitz finds so offensive. I also found it curious that he accidentally omitted any activist or incompetent professors from the right. Where is his indignation about Christian law schools who have plainly stated their intentions to flood the field with their indoctrinated graduates?
The long and short of it is that academy is like any field. There are certified wackos of any extreme. Perhaps more of the wackos in this field are liberal, but most of the wackos in business are probably conservative. So, who's doing the most damage? And really, who cares? Extremism is a bad idea whatever your politics. Horowitz wants to flame a visceral hatred for the left's "indoctrination", so he can make the case for quotas based on political persuasion, not to rid the field of indoctrination, mind you, but simply to make the indoctrination more agreeable to his own politics.
The best I can say is that the length of each profile will make you feel like a speedy reader, as you can get through several in even a short sitting. Other than that, the book feels awfully angry and doesn't really accomplish much in the end. Horowitz wants you to be afraid, but hopefully, you're reading this book because you like to challenge yourself with new ideas and think critically, both of which would make you less susceptible to these evil professors attempts to turn you. Education isn't evil. Your kids are safe. Keep challenging your own ideas and beliefs. And don't be angry.
August 21, 2018
I have read enough on this issue from liberal and conservative authors to know a good portion of Horowitz’ book to be factual, but this reads more like a hit list with a side of analysis. Apart from some truly horrible instances of indoctrination described within, it’s just got no meat on its bones.
June 19, 2016
Interesting and enlightening read. Good to know that I hadn't had any of these professors and have only read the works of a few. It is impossible for the left to have dispelled the reasoning that many of these people have the jobs they do unless admitting outright bias.
September 6, 2008
I would agree it was an ok book but I could not make it all the way through. A little too repetitive
Read
October 10, 2023worth ZERO!!!!
June 26, 2016
There are a lot of good professors who teach our young folks HOW to think. This worthwhile book shows that there are far too many that teach our young folks WHAT they should think.
March 13, 2009
I've only read about 40 pages so far, but this book is so funny.
September 21, 2025
This the Truth,The whole truth and nothing but the truth about how America’s youth is being brain washed by academia today
November 25, 2015
This 2006 book is a listing of these academics and shows their lack of credentials in their academic disciplines and their extreme radical leftist ideology. The author argues that rather than teaching, these people are instead indoctrinating their students with their personal political opinions
Want to read
October 15, 2008lawl
September 25, 2010
Personally, I found it boring and repetitive. The best part was the title of the book and that was somewhat misleading.
Want to read
January 18, 2009Am in the process of reading this book...
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews