What do you think?
Rate this book
Debating P.C.: The Controversy over Political Correctness on College Campuses
The debate over "P.C." at America's universities is the most important discussion in American education today and has grown into a major national controversy raging on the covers of our top magazines and news shows. This provocative anthology gives voice to the top thinkers of our time, liberal and conservative, as they tackle the question. From the multicultural perspective of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who argues passionately for more diversity, to the erudition of Irving Howe, who stresses the profound value of the literary canon, this exciting collection is required reading for thinking Americans . . . and for everyone concerned with the future of higher education and the shaping of young minds.Contents “The Big Chill? Interview with Dinesh D’Souza” by Robert MacNeil “On Modern Language Association Presidential Address 1990” by Catharine R. Stimpson “The Periphery v. the The MLA in Chicago” by Roger Kimball “The Storm over the University” by John Searle “Public Imaged Political Correctness and the Media’s Big Lie” by Michael Berubé “The Value of the Canon” by Irving Howe “The Politics of Knowledge” by Edward W. Said “Whose Canon Is It, Anyway?” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “Why Do We Read?” by Katha Pollitt “’Speech Codes’ on the Campus and Problems of Free Speech” by Nat Hentoff “Freedom of Hate Speech” by Richard Perry and Patricia Williams “There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech and It’s a Good Thing, Too” by Stanley Fish “The Statement of the Black Faculty Caucus” by Ted Gordon and Wahneema Lubiano “Radical English” by George F. Will “Critics of Attempts to Democratize the Curriculum Are Waging a Campaign to Misrepresent the Work of Responsible Professors” by Paula Rothenberg “ E Pluribus Plures” by Diane Ravitch “ An Exchange” by Molefi Kete Asante “The Prospect Before Us” by Hilton Kramer “P.C. Rider” by Enrique Fernández “Diverse New World” by Cornel West “The Challenge for the Left” by Barbara Ehrenreich
358 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1992
3 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Paul Berman
76 books62 followersPaul Lawrence Berman is an American author and journalist who writes on politics and literature. His articles have been published in The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review and Slate, and he is the author of several books, including A Tale of Two Utopias and Terror and Liberalism.
Berman received his undergraduate education from Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1971 with a BA and MA in American history. He has reported on Nicaragua's civil wars, Mexico's elections, and the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution. Currently he is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, a professor of journalism and distinguished writer in residence at New York University, and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. Berman's influence has seen him described as a 'Philosopher King' of the liberal hawks."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Berman
"Paul Berman is a writer on politics and literature whose articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, the New Republic (where he is a contributing editor), the New Yorker, Slate, the Village Voice, Dissent, and various other American, European and Latin American journals. He has reported at length from Europe and Latin America. He has written or edited eight books, including, most recently, Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer and Its Aftermath, with a new preface by Richard Holbrooke for the 2007 paperback edition; Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems, edited with an introduction, published in 2006 by the American Poets Project of the Library of America; and Terror and Liberalism, a New York Times best-seller in 2003. His writings have been translated into fifteen languages. Berman received a B.A. and M.A. in American History from Columbia University and has been awarded a MacArthur, a Guggenheim, the Bosch Berlin Prize, a fellowship at the New York Public Library’s Center for Writers & Scholars, and other honors.
Berman received his undergraduate education from Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1971 with a BA and MA in American history. He has reported on Nicaragua's civil wars, Mexico's elections, and the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution. Currently he is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, a professor of journalism and distinguished writer in residence at New York University, and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. Berman's influence has seen him described as a 'Philosopher King' of the liberal hawks."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Berman
"Paul Berman is a writer on politics and literature whose articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, the New Republic (where he is a contributing editor), the New Yorker, Slate, the Village Voice, Dissent, and various other American, European and Latin American journals. He has reported at length from Europe and Latin America. He has written or edited eight books, including, most recently, Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer and Its Aftermath, with a new preface by Richard Holbrooke for the 2007 paperback edition; Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems, edited with an introduction, published in 2006 by the American Poets Project of the Library of America; and Terror and Liberalism, a New York Times best-seller in 2003. His writings have been translated into fifteen languages. Berman received a B.A. and M.A. in American History from Columbia University and has been awarded a MacArthur, a Guggenheim, the Bosch Berlin Prize, a fellowship at the New York Public Library’s Center for Writers & Scholars, and other honors.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 9, 2008
This was big stuff 15 years ago, now, it's pretty tired, though you still occasionally find right-wingers flogging some version of the "Tenured Radicals are Eating Kids' Brains with Political Correctness" arguments or stories. Nonetheless, if you like reading sociological essays on universities (and I do, I'm a nerd & that's where I work/live) it's a nice set of essays.
April 12, 2022
An interesting set of essays about campus "PC" culture that was written in 1991. It is amazing how much this is still relevant and debated today. The issues are similar, but the relatively new issues of the day now seem to be settled and "uncontroversial" among most of the faculty at universities.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews