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87 of 105 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful book with a lot of truth, July 5, 2004
Shapiro's book is on-point with so much. I wish I'd written this book several years ago when I was still in college, and then grad school. It would have helped to quell the frustration I felt at being swept up in the liberal tides that my schools assumed everyone supported simply because we were academics. I think it's great that there are liberal professors in colleges with far-out ideas. However, there seemed to be (in my experience and, apparently in Shapiro's as well) a false premise in colleges that you must be a liberal in order to be an academic. Further, professors, and other students, often get quite angered if you express a view that is not shared by the class or considered politically incorrect. By the time college is over you become adept at couching and qualifying your statements in order to keep the peace in class and avoid being labeled "right-wing", "intolerant", "fascist", et. al. Admitting that you supported the president or were a Republican, for example, was tantamount to academic suicide in my scholastic career. The irony never escaped me and apparently it didn't escape Shapiro either.
You definitely get the sense that Shapiro is venting his frustrations at being silenced during his college years - as well he should. He seems somewhat bitter at times, which some may find off-putting. Nonetheless, I think this book was probably therapeutic for Shapiro to write since he endured so many attempts to silence him in college. He channeled his frustrations quite well by writing this book. Is the book perfect? Of course not - but he takes good care to back up its assertions with painstakingly researched documentation and footnotes. On the whole, it is a noteworthy book. I entered college a Democrat, and it was my experience in higher education that made me a Republican by the time I finished my MA in '03. I was simply turned off by the lack of tolerance allowed to ideas that departed from the leftist platform. In turn, I became suspicious, and eventually resentful, of the implicitly (and explicitly) stated assumption that, by virtue of being a college student, you should support liberal agendas. I still think people in this country are deluded by labels. I consider myself "liberal" in the sense that I like to consider and discuss all ideas before arriving at my opinions on an issue. However, since all ideas were not given credence in the classroom, I realized what a misnomer the word has become. Kudos to Shapiro for being willing to discuss this openly and defend the importance of critical thinking. On a side note, I had a very difficult time finding this book at Borders. It was stocked in a remote, low-traffic area of the store, in a section called "Parenting and Education" (near baby name books and such).
When I tried to pay for it, the cashier looked at the book, gave me a patronizing laugh, and (without being asked) volunteered to tell me why she "would not agree with it at all", being a 20 year-old college student herself. When I explained that Shapiro was actually also 20 and just graduating college, she told me that he surely must be making "sweeping generalizations" about the college experience and how he, a 20 year-old, could not possibly write such a "scholarly book, and pretend he's like...this scholar or something". She got really mad! I suggested we both read the book before pontificating about whether or not he's justified for writing it (which of course he is) and she finally shut up, and I was able to escape. Be careful what you try to buy at Borders! You might not find it, or be subjected to a liberal rant as a reward for shopping there.
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by Jim Nelson Black
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