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Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education

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America's colleges and universities have always had their fair share of leftist radicals but as astounding as it may seem today, until the early 1960s the majority of college teachers tended toward the right or at the least managed to avoid the radicalism so thoroughly entrenched today. In TENURED RADICALS, Roger Kimball, himself a conservative critic of the arts, analyzes how and why this transformation has taken place. The villain he notes is that the very faculty who are charged with the education of our young have willingly and eagerly abandoned the search for truth by denying the very existence of absolutes like "truth" "justice" and "universality." Politics, in his opinion, has trumped an impartial quest for a firm and unwavering underpinning for Western culture.

This attack began, oddly enough, in Plato's day as Plato had the good sense to recognize the seductive appeal of rhetoric and could reject it in favor of elevating the reality behind that rhetoric over the rhetoric itself. Kimball notes that over the next two millenia most philosophers have succeeded in avoiding this pitfall--at least until this century when Jacques Derrida began to unravel the meaning of meaning by imputing to it a foundation of relativism that says in essence that human beings can never "know" anything for certain because of unvoidable biases, prejudices, and ideologies. Kimball takes an interesting tack by structuring much of his book in the form of academic conferences in which he attends and by using his trusty tape recorder captures the very words and intonations of speakers who rail against the very jobs that pay them such lofty paychecks. Kimball is a very witty and funny writer. As these academic deans speak their deconstructionist jargon, Kimball will then translate into plain English. As he does so, he, like Dorothy in Oz, swoops away the linguistic curtain that hides speakers who literally exhibit a gross lack of the very essentials that they are expounding.

Kimball is aghast at the willingness of academia to abandon the canon of Great Books. He notes that it is bad enough to suggest that this canon be discarded but that it is infinitely worse to replace it with second and third rate works that are represented only because the authors fall into an acceptable mixture or racial, ethnic, and gender divisions. Kimball also plays devil's advocate by examining the defense of academia against charges that this radicalization of curricula has rendered our nation's humanities departments largely irrelevant. Their defense, he notes, usually takes the tack of a call for "diversity" when the overwhelming number of courses offered today are anything but.

In TENURED RADICALS, Roger Kimball is not optimistic that there will be any significant changes anytime soon. The philosophical mind rot has embedded itself too deeply. For those who still believe that there are still some universal sentiments worth learning, then this book is invaluable reading.

Roger Kimball's work is a refreshing look at the sad state of the Humanities today. Is the book rather one-sided in its views on the 'culture wars'? Yes, but then again one will not get much vigorous debate on the subject in most Humanities departments today-and this is exactly Mr. Kimball's point. Even putting aside the complete contempt for truth these scholars show, if this neglect and subversion of Humanities departments were simply an academic affair, perhaps Mr. Kimball would sound histrionic, but he clearly identifies the real victims-the students. Indeed, the book comes off at points almost conspiratorial, as Mr. Kimball implies that the failed radical fight these scholars fought while students is now being played out for the hearts and minds of contemporary students. Sadly, that argument is not without some merit. The adolescent postures of these scholars that are lauded as arguments by the so-called 'cultural Left' make amusing, if at times frustrating reading for those accustomed to the naive belief that the universities existed for higher learning in pursuit of such feeble contemporary notions such as truth. Mr. Kimball lances the proponents with their own words and ideas, not their backgrounds or politics, something his opponents should take note of.

When I read the first edition some years ago, when I was in college myself, I wanted to stand up and cheer. This book does an excellent job of exposing how the study of humanities has ceased to be an academic discipline, and more of an exercise in political posturing in Lit. and humanities departments across the nation. This book is also a wickedly funny skewering of all those in higher ed. who perceive their mission to be the indoctrination, rather than education, of today's college students. I see (sadly) that in the eight years since the publication of the 1'st edition, things have only gotten worse....

When some future historian sits down to research his multivolume work on the history of human imbecility, he will discover the most interesting, exotic, and vivid forms of this vast enterprise in academia. And he will find Roger Kimball's turn-of-the-century researches on this subject to be an indispensible source. He will also find it a pleasure to read, which is unusual for a book which serves as a kind of catalogue of the the nasty, silly, and futile projects of the PostMod Academic. Mind you, Tenured Radicals is not for all contemporary readers. Many will experience its lucidity as a highly personal insult. Others will react to its wit with peevish resentment. Never mind. As the ancient Persian proverb tells us, "The dogs will bark but the caravan moves on."

I remember asking Jay Nordlinger a couple of years ago why Roger Kimball didn't get swept up by a university due to his obvious brilliance, and Jay told me that he would gain no possible advantage from working at one (even if they would hire him) which is probably true as his brand of scholarship is seldom found in the academy today. Today I reread the absolutely stunning and marvelous Tenured Radicals and was remiss not to have reviewed it back in 2002. It remains a riveting and educational narrative even though over 15 years have passed since it was first published. The open-minded should be prepared though because this is a very ugly tale. Mr. Kimball goes around to various university speaking events and reports back to us not only about what has been said but also about the climate around the symposiums.







Unfortunately, the reason that this book is not as well-remembered and quoted as it should be is due to its being a complete underestimation of the political corruption endemic to our universities today. In other words, what he described is rather mild as 1990 was a dream for libertarians as opposed to the horror show that we would find on campus in 2007. David Horowitz estimated that 10% of the professorate was left-wing and activist but that too is probably an underestimate. I pity students graduating from high school today as the 80 grand they'll pay for a college education isn't worth ten bucks due to the amount in which truth will be replaced with propaganda.







At any rate, what's best about Tenured Radicals is Kimball's acerbic and rightly condescending wit. There are so many great asides here the tone will keep you giggling throughout. The Paul de Man debacle, in which one of the mother's of postmodernism was discovered to have had a Vichy-Nazi past, was a wonderful way in which to illustrate the lack of veracity and character present within the average deconstructionist. They all joined in to defend the deceased Petainist for no other reason than that he was a fellow serial obfuscator and fantasist. Once you're finished with TR you'll wonder why Professor Houston Baker didn't take his show on the road as a stand-up comedian. That guy's about as unintentionally funny as anyone in history. This book marked the beginning of a sensational career for Mr. Kimball who is now one of the two or three greatest minds in conservadom.

An early sally countering irrational trends in humanities studies, Kimball provides an overview of the impact of "deconstructionism." He sees the humanities in a state of crisis. At issue is the aim of the "new left" to displace the values established by the Enlightenment, replacing them with "politically correct" ideals. These ideals include "feminist studies," multi-cultural values, and various forms of "text analysis" asserting culture drives scholarship. These new ideals have crossed the Atlantic from their home among modern French "philosophes." Kimball argues these ideals have taken root and spread firmly throughout North American universities. They are eroding the traditional aims of universities to teach critical thinking, replacing that with slogans and a political agenda.

Kimball identifies the "Western canon" - the establishment of a hierarchy of valuable works of literature, history, critical studies based on value. That canon is represented by works of what the British refer to as "the Greats." While conceding that the membership of these "Greats" is Eurocentric, he counters that the Enlightenment has been successfully exported around the world. It is not the writers or critics themselves that have been received successfully elsewhere [although that's often the case], but the methods and values from the Enlightenment that have gained ascendancy. In contrast, the new "postmodernist" thrust seeks to abandon not only the people representing the canon, but the very methods of thinking and writing that gave rise to it.

Recognizing that the movement asserts it is making academia more "democratic," Kimball argues that in scholarship, democracy isn't a replacement for merit. Why, he asks, should a student "place Shakespeare on a par with Bugs Bunny"? Characterising the rise of deconstruction as an "intellectual spree" he mourns its nchallenged wide acceptance. He goes on to present numerous examples of the thinking [or lack of it] expressed by its advocates. The items range from magazine editorial policies to convocations of educators planning curricula. Perhaps the most jarring note is his description of the impact of deconstruction on architecture. Although that seems almost humorously self-contradictory, Kimball provides valid examples.

His presentation is passionate, perhaps even alarming to the unwary reader. A strong advocate of traditional Western ideals, Kimball sprinkles the work with his aversion to Marxist tenets. If the book has a serious shortcoming, it is that blatant political orientation. Since this book was published, other surveys have appeared. None have truly replaced this seminal work in examining the pronouncements of those setting the academic agenda today. This book deserves attention and study. The issues have not faded since it was published.

Read this book to find out how universities professing a dedication to free inquiry have become dreary factories churning out politically correct products. Sobering reading, and sad.

Published in 1990 and still quite a good read, this book is your guide to what happened to American higher education in the later decades of the 20th century.

Kimball is quite the upscale stylish. He writes, let us say, handsomely and, at times, archly. Unless you're one of his targets, you'll probably find him fun. He names a lot of names.

This book is basically a tirade against the "politicized obscurantism" which flooded through the groves of academe. Orwell explained it all so well: once sincerity goes, clarity follows; jargon metastasizes; and sophistry becomes king. These obscurantists preached from the bibles of Post-modernism, Post-structuralism, Post-capitalism, Post-culturalism et al. We heard far too often about the genius of Deconstruction and Theory. The claim buried in all this chatter was that Theory (talking about Literature) is more important than Literature itself. It's not. The deeper bias is inevitably in favor of Nihilism. There's no truth, our theorists argue, there's nothing you can really believe in, so you might as well let them take control of your thoughts.

As a practical matter, graduate students may be entitled to study any nuances they find intriguing; presumably they know enough to defend themselves. The problem with our Tenured Radicals is that they wanted the undergraduates. These kids come to college not knowing all that much, and any hour wasted on hifalutin literary criticism, or on obscure works promoted by this or that professor, is an hour NOT spent reading all the more important works. There are thousands of them, right? Who gets to them all? Here is the crime of these radical academics: they ensured that millions of hours would be wasted on stuff that probably left no residue at all.

When I first read this book, around 1995, it was part of my inspiration for writing a long satirical poem called Theoryland, if I may mention this. All these pretenders take themselves oh-so seriously. Their pomposity is laughable. Kimball dissects the joke.

Tenured Radicals is a powerful indictment of what passes for rigor and excellence in the humanities today. There's no doubt that Kimball exposes much of "the worst that has been thought and written" in academia recently, to misquote Arnold deliberately. But as one reader below suggests, Kimball often crassly simplifies anything with which he disagrees, appealing to common sense when we all know that things aren't always that simple (would that they were!). In hopes of reviving discussions of academic excellence--an endeavor that I, for one, truly applaud--he is often sadly anti-intellectual in his willingness to dismiss various subjects of which he has a rather paltry understanding.

So, I admire the courage expressed here--the willingness to hold various self-proclaimed "experts" accountable for the nonsense they have peddled. Much of the scholarly rubbish summarized here is truly deplorable and risible. But there IS another side to the story, a side leaving room for speculation, tempered debate, and inquiry. Kimball risks losing the proverbial baby with the bathwater when making simplistic links between valuable theories and their least coherent spokespeople.

In the introduction to the 3rd edition of this classic analysis, Kimball notes that at the conclusion of the 1990s all the trends he identified in the first edition at the start of that decade now hold sway as orthodoxy. Although Tenured Radicals focuses on the grotesqueries in the humanities departments at universities across the USA, it also throws light on how contemporary culture is absorbing it.

Besides scrutinizing the books and articles emanating from these intellectual swamps, the author attended a large number of symposia with a tape recorder in order to capture the meaninglessness and the madness that have overtaken the departments of literature and the arts. A variety of academic institutions are represented here including Yale, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Princeton and the universities of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Kimball first quotes the senseless blather then translates it into plain language and dissects it with hilarious results. The one-time custodians of knowledge have become purveyors of trash and conveyors of grievances under the guise of "Studies" or "Theory". These sophists are the academic equivalents of the Joker from the Batman movies with their political posturing, interest group politics, post-modernist, post-structuralist, post-everything jargon.

So those entrusted with educating the young have abandoned the quest for truth by denying its existence. They babble pompously about their narrow partisan "discourses" & "narratives" while heaping contempt upon the masterpieces of art and literature. Society, they claim, consists of groups competing for power; the notion of civil society is anathema and reality is a "social construct." In this regard, Stephen Hicks does a splendid job of explaining postmodernism in his book by that title.

Kimball examines the work of philosopher Richard Rorty and law professor Stanley Fish in detail, tracing it back to the Greek Sophists like Protagoras. Only power is left in the absence of truth so this revival of sophistry cheapens all intellectual activity. He warns that the very idea of literature as a unique form of expression with its own values and goals is undermined since the literary-aesthetic experience exercises an important claim on us only to the degree that it transcends time-bound political differences.

These intellectual impostors are really nothing but cynical and insincere parasites in the public purse. There's nothing genuinely radical about them as they infest public institutions where they enjoy job security unlike those who create wealth in the private sector. Demonstrating only disdain for our Hebrew, Greek and Roman heritage and the achievements of our civilization, they trample on notions of tradition, truth, rationality and the rule of law while promoting neo-tribalism.

Posing as dissidents and the champions of the downtrodden, they feed off the creation and achievements of others. Ideas matter and thoughts become things, so the Jokers are opening the gates to barbarism by their meaningless drivel extolling multiculturalism, postmodernism and relativism. In addition they have imposed politically correct speech codes to programme the young minds they are supposed to expand.

Based on a primordial lie that betrays the covenant between language and reality, the pathology of Leftism is forever attempting to suppress or subvert the Word. As Jean François Revel points out in Last Exit to Utopia, they have recovered from the shock of the Soviet Empire's collapse and are at it again. Kimball isn't optimistic about the possibilities of remedying the situation since the lunatics who control the humanities attract and hire their fellow ideologues and the academic institutions have vast monetary resources.

He recommends continued activism to try to bring about real diversity and in this and other books has provided us with a formidable arsenal to counteract the forces of disintegration. Further valuable works that expose intellectual deception include The Reckless Mind by Mark Lilla and Intellectual Morons by Daniel Flynn whilst Ophelia Benson & Jeremy Stangroom's Why Truth Matters provides further ammunition for defending and restoring truth.