Blogs > Cliopatria > Things Noted Here and There

Oct 19, 2005

Things Noted Here and There


by Cliopatria


KC Johnson's critique of NCATE's recommendation that prospective teachers be evaluated for their"dispositions" regarding"social justice" wins national recognition in John Leo,"Class(room) Warriors," US News and World Report, 24 October.

Do not miss Chris Bray's close reading of the Iraqi constitution at Historiblogography. Under American military occupation, Iraq has apparently adopted a constitution that would please both Karl Marx and John C. Calhoun. Unfortunately, Chris had a better shot at reading it than the Iraqis did before they had to vote on it.

"The Treasure, the Strongbox, and the Crowbar," TomDispatch.com, 17 October, is an interview with Juan Cole on"George Bush's Iraq." Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

On Friday 21 October, Cliopatria will present a symposium on Sean Wilentz,"Bush's Ancestors," New York Times, 16 October. Cliopatricians should send their responses to it to Manan Ahmed at: manan*at*uchicago*dot*edu. Other history bloggers who want to participate should send a link to their post to Manan at the same address.


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Louis N Proyect - 10/18/2005

To the Editor:

John Tierney ("Why Righties Can't Teach," column, Oct. 15) believes that the preponderance of liberals on campus can be explained by bias, conscious and unconscious.

He paints a picture of liberal scholars disparaging conservative research, of tenure and hiring committees looking askance at right-leaning colleagues.

But if this were a significant factor, wouldn't we see a difference between the makeup of a political science department and that of a mathematics department?

Mathematical scholarship has no political coloring. Politics doesn't appear on the resume of a mathematician. Politics doesn't come up in job interviews. But
from where I stand, mathematics departments are as liberal as any in academia.

Any explanation of liberals on campus has to explain bleeding-heart geologists, socialist computer scientists, tax-and-spend physicists and knee-jerk mathematicians. Bias can't do that. But one idea, not mentioned by Mr. Tierney, could.

Perhaps in the marketplace of ideas some ideas are winning - and some are losing.

James M. Henle (Smith College)