A Book Too Risky To Publish: Free Speech And Universities

by James R. Flynn

Traditionally, our society has broadly agreed that the “good university” should teach the intellectual skills students need to become citizens who are intelligently critical of their own beliefs and of the narratives presented politicians, society, the media, and, indeed, universities themselves. The freedom to debate is essential to the development of critical thought, but on university campuses today free speech is increasingly restricted for fear of causing “offense.” In this daring and intrepid book, which was originally withdrawn from publication by another publisher but is now proudly presented by Academica Press, the famous intelligence researcher James R. Flynn presents the underlying factors that have circumscribed the range of ideas now tolerated in our institutions of learning. Flynn studiously examines how universities effectively censor teaching, how social and political activism effectively censors its opponents, and how academics censor themselves and each other. A Book Too Risky To Publish concludes that few universities are now living up to their original mission to promote free inquiry and unfettered critical thought. In an age marred by fake news and ever increasing social and political polarization, this book makes an impassioned argument for a return to critical thought in our institutions of higher education.

Genres: Politics

328 pages, Hardcover

First published December 20, 2019

About the author

James Robert Flynn, PhD, aka Jim Flynn, is Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, researches intelligence and is famous for his publications about the continued year-after-year increase of IQ scores throughout the world, which is now referred to as the Flynn effect. The Flynn Effect is the subject of a multiple author monograph published by the American Psychological Association in 1998. Originally from Washington DC and educated in Chicago, Flynn emigrated to New Zealand in 1963.

Reviews

[Larkin H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not surprised to be the first review of Professor Flynn's last book. As the title indicates, publication was rejected by several major publishers so getting a copy of the book is not simple or cheap. It is a tragedy that Flynn has passed away and is not able to support his work and push back against the Twitter mob that I assume will come after this book.

Flynn is a true liberal and he holds nothing back in his final book. As a proud socialist, Flynn left the US because of right-led censorship of socialists/communists/"un-patriots" during the early stages of the Cold War. He is, therefore, well positioned to see the similarities of the current left-led pushes towards--and in many cases accomplishments of--censorship in Universities.

If you are a classical liberal, this book will be a reminder of the dangers that occur when academia suppresses freedom of thought, speech, and research. If you are a modern 'liberal' then this book may be upsetting as he is critical of much of the modern University's curricula, ideology, and 'woke' subject-matter degrees and departments.

Perhaps most importantly, Flynn complies an incredible amount of examples that highlight the absurdity of community-led, student-led, and professor-led censorship. This is a great book for the age of cancel culture. Flynn offers suggestions on how to return schools to the mission of creating critical skills and critical minds.

As Flynn shows, the University system has stopped treating students as subjects and instead views them a customers whose preferences are to be satisfied. The result is a campus filled with 'safe spaces', departments concerned with 'trigger warnings', and graduates leaving the University with little critical thinking and autonomy.

George Orwell wrote that government had to "control the past" (i.e. censor history) in order to produce citizens incapable and unwilling to challenge the political elite. James Flynn shows that the elite (professors, University deans, and donors) simply choose not to teach the past in favor of teaching the present leftist dogmas, creating an a-historical generation that will be unable to think critically of the world and the policies of the elites.

[Jukka Aakula · Rating 5 out of 5]

The famous leftist professor James R. Flynn - inventor of the Flynn effect - criticizes the lack of free speech at universities much as the Economist magazine or Quillette. He especially talks for the freedom of those who disagree with him on the issue of IQ differences between black and white:

"There should be no academic sanctions against those who believe that were environments equalized, genetic differences between black and white Americans would mean that blacks have an IQ deficit. Whether the evidence eventually dictates a genetically caused deficit of nil or 5 or 10 or 20 IQ points is irrelevant. The hypothesis is intelligible and subject to scientific investigation. If that is so, you must have already investigated it if you are to know what is true or false. To prohibit others from investigation or publication of their results is to designate certain truths as the property of an elite to be forbidden to anyone else. It is to insulate them from whatever new evidence the scientific method may provide that would modify belief. A word to those who seek respectability by banning race/gene research: how much respectability would you get if your position were stated without equivocation? What if you were to openly say genetic equality between the races may or may not be true; and that is exactly why I forbid it to be investigated. Or: “I do not know if genetic equality is true and do not want anyone else to know."

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept of "Freedom of Speech" is just a concept, and certainly not applied in education.

According to this author, one might say that a lack of critical thinking is where conspiracy theories take root - the denial of even the basic principles of science. James Flynn provides a thorough, academic, reasoned, and case-filled study to bolster his theories about the lack of reasoned conclusions and free speech intolerance in America. As a public school educator myself, I won't pretend to practice the ideals he espouses.

Flynn is said to be a liberal - maybe he is. As a liberal myself, I bristled many, many times throughout this book as he argued for conservative viewpoints along the way. Isn't this what free speech should be all about? The capacity to *listen to* uncomfortable viewpoints, then offer a *reasoned and educated* response to those ideas. We don't systematically learn how to do this, lest some parent or school board member gets offended.

I'm so glad I powered through this heavy read, and also glad Flynn sprinkled it with both humor and sarcasm throughout. It made me reach into my depths of understanding history, literature, sociology, philosophy, and more. If we don't have a rudimentary understanding of general education to the point we can refer to it when considering policy proposals - what kind of people are we?