Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus [Paperback]

Dinesh D'Souza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 1992

Is "Political Correctness" chilling freedom of thought and speech on American campuses today? Is multicultural activism splitting the university on moral grounds, creating not a truly diverse community but balkanized tribal enclaves?

Based on extensive research at six major universities, Illiberal Education is a hugely controversial, powerful polemic that examines the most important and divisive questions confronting American education today. Dinesh D'Souza argues that by charging universities with being "structurally" racist, sexist, and class-biased, a coalition of student activists, junior faculty, and compliant administrators have imposed their own political ideals on admissions, hiring, curriculum, and even personal conduct, while eschewing the goals of liberal education.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Neoconservative former White House policy analyst D'Souza adds a new introduction to this hard-hitting condemnation of preferential treatment for minority applicants to universities; this was a PW bestseller for three weeks.may 24-june 7 issues
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book is sure to generate controversy. The author's thesis is that affirmative action policies in college admissions, and the higher education establishment's zealous pursuit of a curriculum that reflects the new orthodoxy of multiculturalism (which calls for increased minority admissions and privileges, more minority-based classes, more minorities on faculties) promote ignorance and racism. D'Souza, a former White House domestic policy analyst, supports his views with extensive interviews and studies conducted on six college campuses. The new victims, he feels, are the high academic achievers who are assumed to rejected for fear of overrepresentation (various Asian minorities). The debate has already begun over D'Souza's engaging and thought-provoking book. Articles featuring it appeared in Atlantic Monthly (February) and are forthcoming in Read er's Digest and Forbes in April. For most libraries.
- Arla Lindgren, St. John's Univ., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 3, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679738576
• ISBN-13: 978-0679738572
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,576,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In 2010, Dinesh D'Souza was named the president of The King's College, a Christian college located in the Empire State Building in New York City. The mission of The King's College is to transform society by preparing students for careers in which they help to shape and eventually to lead strategic public and private institutions.

D'Souza brought to The King's College a distinguished 25-year career as a writer, scholar, and public intellectual. A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D'Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Called one of the "top young public-policy makers in the country" by Investor's Business Daily, D'Souza quickly became known as a major influencer on public policy through his writings. His first book, Illiberal Education (1991), publicized the phenomenon of political correctness in America's colleges and universities and became a New York Times bestseller for 15 weeks. It has been listed as one of the most influential books of the 1990s.

In 1995, D'Souza published The End of Racism, which became one of the most controversial books of the time and another national bestseller. His 1997 book, Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader, was the first book to make the case for Reagan's intellectual and political importance. D'Souza's The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in an Age of Techno Affluence (2000) explored the social and moral implications of wealth.

In 2002, D'Souza published his New York Times bestseller What's So Great About America, which was critically acclaimed for its thoughtful patriotism. His 2003 book Letters to a Young Conservative has become a handbook for a new generation of young conservatives inspired by D'Souza's style and ideas. The Enemy at Home published in 2006, stirred up a furious debate both on the left and the right. It became a national bestseller and was published in paperback in 2008, with a new Afterword by the author responding to his critics.

Just as in his early years D'Souza was one of the nation's most articulate spokesmen for a reasoned and thoughtful conservatism, so in recent years he has been an equally brilliant and forceful defender of Christianity. What's So Great About Christianity not only intelligently explained the core doctrines of the Christian faith, it also explained how the freedom and prosperity associated with Western Civilization rest upon the foundation of biblical Christianity. Life After Death: The Evidence shows why the atheist critique of immortality is irrational and draws the striking conclusion that it is reasonable to believe in life after death. His most recent book The Roots of Obama's Rage (Regnery, 2010) has been described as the most influential political book of the year and has proven to be yet another best seller. These books--not to mention a razor-sharp wit and entertaining style--have allowed D'Souza to participate in highly-publicized debates about Christianity with some of the most famous atheists and skeptics of our time.

One of D'Souza's favorite venues for debates and speeches has been college campuses. During the past 20 years, he has appeared at hundreds of colleges and universities, and has spoken with hundreds of thousands of students in these live settings. In recent years he has taken on the New Atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Peter Singer and Michael Shermer.

Born in Mumbai, India, D'Souza came to U.S. as an exchange student and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983.

D'Souza has been named one of America's most influential conservative thinkers by the New York Times Magazine. The World Affairs Council lists him as one of the nation's 500 leading authorities on international issues, and Newsweek cited him as one of the country's most prominent Asian Americans.

D'Souza's articles have appeared in virtually every major magazine and newspaper, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, New Republic, and National Review. He has appeared on numerous television programs, including the Today Show, Nightline, The News Hour, O'Reilly Factor, Moneyline, and Hannity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coersion, indoctrination and intolerance in the classroom..., August 7, 2000

By 

Mayer Goldberg (Beer Sheva, Negev Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (Paperback)

It's an embarrasing prospect to consider: Universities silencing discussion and dissention. But D'Souza mounts a compelling case: Example after example, case after case of faculty bullying students with opposing views, silencing discussion in class, using campus police to keep out students that ask questions. Where? At some of the top schools in the United States.

The issue is not about using this or that term -- students pretty much absorb and abide by the vocabulary of Political Correctness. The issue is not about speaking in a polite and civilised manner. The issue is not about raising your hand and waiting for your turn to speak. The issue is about what you think and believe: Apparently, when students take positions that are opposed to the political views and agendas of some of the faculty, it's discipline time!

Why are classrooms politicised? Why do professors bring their political agendas into the classroom? Of what value is an education system that holds that some views are above discussion, considertation, challange?

The importance of Illiberal Education is in the collection of cases it presents: Victims of intolerance and indoctrination in the classroom can realise that what's happening to them is not an isolated instance but a part of a larger trend. It will also help them respond more effectively.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I hate to say it..., July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (Paperback)

It pains me to agree with anything this conservative Reagan lackey has to say, but the fact is that when it comes to academics, something has gone well-intentioned but wrong on American campuses. As Harold Bloom has put it, people don't teach literature anymore, they teach ideologies. I don't like D'Souza's politics, but he does a good job here of skewering the opposite extreme which seems to have gotten the upper hand in turning colleges into travesties.

77 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant and well argued, June 22, 2000

By 

David E. Levine (Peekskill , NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (Paperback)

D'Souza makes a strong case for the proposition that the modern American university, in the name of diversity and multiculturalism, has stifled debate and intimidated everyone into accepting new canons. These canons are race and gender based propositions that one must accept or risk being ostracized as sexist or racist. D'Souza argues that Western thought is self criticising (ie Marxism is a criticism of Western borgois culture) and that teaching method of the typical liberal curriculae was disputation, not indoctrination. The recent gender and ethnic studies programs, however, are based on indoctgrination. You do not dare to debate the ideas espoused in these courses. D'Souza also points out serious inequities in affirmative action programs such as Asian students being discriminated against at Berkley since their achievement was so high, they had a disproportionately large number of applicants qualified for admission. Therefore, white applicants and certainly minority applicants were favored over the Asians. Some claim the author is a right wing idealogue but, in fact, he makes a sound, well reasoned argument that many political liberals, who favor the traditional liberal education, could well embrace.