Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor [Hardcover]

Mike S. Adams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

Prof.Adams lampoons sacred liberal cows such as affirmative action, ethnocentrism, Gay Pride, cultural insensitivity training, multiculturalism and censorship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This lively collection of essays surveys the campus culture wars from the conservative side of the trenches. Adams, a criminal justice professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, takes a big swipe at the politically correct, feminists, gay activists, the diversity establishment and what he portrays as the mealy-mouthed administrators and thin-skinned colleagues and students who are quick to fire off thoughtless allegations of racism and sexism. He takes on Cornel West, for his defense of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and The Vagina Monologues, for a general over-ripeness, but mostly sticks to his own experiences asserting First Amendment rights against what he feels is the heavy-handed and censorious climate of left-wing orthodoxy at his own school. Adams clearly relishes the role of conservative gadfly. He casts himself as the eternal target of tirades in the cafeteria or the men’s room, and enjoys offering up provocative Modest Proposals, like university affirmative action programs for underrepresented Republicans, or a Men’s Resource Center where victims of false rape accusations can retreat for counseling. The book’s last 50 pages are devoted to an acrimonious exchange of e-mails with a radical student over the September 11 attacks, which escalated into an accusation of libel and an investigation of Adams’s e-mail by UNCW, and finally ignited a national press rumpus that landed him a guest spot on Hannity and Colmes. Some of the contretemps he writes about, like a professor’s wild charges of sexual harassment and "terrorism" against some colleagues, or a catfight between two female professors over a male job applicant, seem like little more than departmental politics run amok. But Adams has a dry wit and a sharp, if partisan, eye for the excesses and fatuities of the left, one that raises important issues about attitudes toward free speech and tolerance on campus.
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About the Author

Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. He graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. He was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, he moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology.

In 1990, he turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study ociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. He also played for free beer.

Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.

After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for the Heritage Foundation's Townhall.com. He is now one of the Web site's most read columnists.

Today he enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his wife, Krysten. He is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. He is thrilled by the opportunity to publish his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, which is due out in May 2004.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Harbor House; First Printing edition (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891799177
• ISBN-13: 978-1891799174
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #932,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 140 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read...except in Canada, apparently., June 7, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor (Hardcover)

Though hardly definitive disections of university life, this book and Ben Shapiro's "Brainwashed" offer enlightening and entertaining glimpses of the experiences of a professor at UNC Wilmington (Adams) and student at UCLA (Shapiro). Of the two, Adams' book is better, but both are worthwhile.

"Ivory Tower" is limited primarily to Adams' own encounters with campus radicalism within the UNC system (mostly Wilmington and Chapel Hill) and doesn't provide the usual laundry list of anecdotes from other schools. This is the book's strong point, I think. Basing his argument on his personal experiences lends greater credibility to his case, and his sense of sarcasm makes the book a fun read along the way. If you're interested in the topic, I think you'll be satisfied.

As for that reviewer from Canada who slammed the book (or, more specifically, the author), once you've finished "Ivory Tower" you'll no doubt be easily able to imagine how Dr. Adams would respond, since this person's supposedly "liberal and open-minded" attitude towards those who think differently is precisely what this book is scrutinizing. Which makes me wonder, O Canada, did you actually read the book? And have you thought through the self-contradiction of claiming that liberals at universities should exclude conservatives because if conservatives are allowed in they will exclude non-conservatives? And what "fringe" ideas does Dr. Adams reveal in his book? Your review says more about you than it does "Ivory Tower," and what it says about you is what makes this book necessary.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dave barry meets ann coulter, April 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor (Hardcover)

This book discusses important free speech issues. Adams writes a lot like Ann Coulter. However, the humorous spin he puts on weighty issues and the serious spin he puts on mundane issues distinguishes him. He is, in many ways, like Dave Barry.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Yet Sad, November 27, 2005

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor (Hardcover)

Mike Adams (Professor, UNC-Wilmington) writes in a very entertaining manner, which is simultaneously entertaining and educating (and often very funny). I am the child of a Professor in the UNC system (UNC-Charlotte) and while things have clearly become loonier since I was close to the system I am, unfortunately, completely unsurprised by anything Adams writes.

The book is largely a collection of letters and editorials Adams wrote over a protracted period of time, and culminates in a lengthy recollection of charges of libel from a socialist student (and her parents) that should serve as a cautionary tale to participants in university systems everywhere. The single best thing about this book is how Adams instructs conservative students (and non-tenured faculty members, who really are on the spot) to defeat ridiculous charges of racism, homophobia, and insensitivity. Generally these lessons come from his own experiences (for example, look at the scorn he faced over the California Proposition 187 issue from the other Professors), but in a few cases he offers direct and useful advice to others. He is always well reasoned, and thinks for himself (he's a Republican from Texas who opposes the death penalty, after all) which there should be more of in academia today.

While many on the left will not like this book, I see their charges against Adams and other conservatives to be disingenuous at best, and hypocritical at worst. The left claims they want "diversity," but clearly want no diversity of thought amongst faculty. This book is a must-read for anyone even tangentially interested in higher education in the United States today.