More Historians Criticize the OAH's Report on Academic Freedom
Readers will recall that Ralph Luker, K.C. Johnson, and myself faulted the report for ignoring the threat posed by speech codes. Now, Gil Troy, representing a moderate voice, has this to say: Imagine historians in 2055 researching the state of academic freedom in 2005. They discover that a “Committee on Academic Freedom” identified “five major areas of concern”: government surveillance, government harassing foreigners, government restricting archival access, government “shap[ing] the content of teaching and research” and harassment of teachers by conservatives, notably repressing “antiwar” voices and imposing celebrations of Ronald Reagan. Wouldn’t you suspect this litany was one-sided? Wouldn’t you think that notions of accuracy and integrity aside, good strategy would entail noting at least one example of leftist intolerance to create the pretense of balance?