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

Dinesh D'Souza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

Charging that many American campuses are "structurally" racist, sexist, and class-biased, student activists have emposed their own political ideals on university policies concerning admissions, curriculum, hiring, and personal conduct. D'Souza charges that this revolution of self-styled oppressed minorities threatens the university's independence from politics and hence its integrity.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Virtually all U.S. universities now fill a sizable portion of each year's freshman class with students from "certified minority groups"--mainly blacks and Hispanics--with considerably lower grade-point averages than white and Asian-American applicants who are refused admission, according to the author. A former White House policy analyst, D'Souza believes that preferential-treatment admissions policies weaken educational standards and foster separatism and racial tension on campus. In a hard-hitting, controversial report sure to be widely debated, he focuses on divisive issues at six schools: Stanford's multicultural curriculum; Berkeley's ethnic admissions policy; Lee Atwater's forced resignation as Howard University trustee; and recent developments at Michigan, Harvard and Duke. Now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, D'Souza calls for "nonracial affirmative action policies" based strictly on socioeconomic disadvantage. He further argues that university-funded student groups should be built around cultural and intellectual interests, not skin color or sexual proclivity.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Dove Entertainment Inc (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558004629
• ISBN-13: 978-1558004627
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,455,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In the fall of 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 educating students so that they are prepared to shape and lead the strategic institutions.

D'Souza brings to King's a distinguished 25 year career as a writer, scholar and intellectual. A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D'Souza also served as an Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute as well as a Rishwain Scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

Called one of the "top young public-policy makers in the country" by Investor's Business Daily, D'Souza quickly became a major influence on public policy through his writings. Illiberal Education, his first book publicized the phenomenon of political correctness in America's colleges and universities and was on the best seller list for 15 weeks. Subsequent best sellers, include Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader, The Virtue of Prosperity, Finding Values in an Age of Techno Affluence, What's So Great About America, Letters to a Young Conservative and What's So Great About Christianity, and The Roots of Obama's Rage. His latest work, Godforsaken, responds to the problem of evil and will be available March 1, 2012.

A prolific, writer, persuasive debater, and sought after speaker on college campuses as well as many other venues, D'Souza has been named one of America's most influential conservative thinkers by the New York Times.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 77 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.

45 of 46 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.

78 of 87 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.