October 24, 2023: New Scholarly Books: Resistance from the Right

[It’s beena bit since I dedicated a blog series to highlighting great newscholarly books—so this week I’m dedicating a blog series to highlighting greatnew scholarly books. Please add more recommendations, new, old, and anywhere inbetween, in comments!]

One of themost frustrating misunderstandings in our current social and politicalconversations (a very competitive category, of course) has to do with where andfrom whom the threats to free speech in higher education are coming: many ofour narratives suggest those threats come from the “intolerant left”; while Iwould argue that the far, far more widespread and influentialsuch threats come from conservative critics. And that’s not a newphenomenon, as historian Lauren Lassabe Shepherd argues in her vital new book Resistancefrom the Right: Conservatives & the Campus Wars in Modern America. Shepherdconnects mid-20th century debates and forces to our own moment andclimate with nuance and complexity, while making an unassailable case for what’sreally been happening in and to higher ed for more than half a century. If youread one book about higher education this Fall, make it Resistance from the Right!

Next bookrec tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other books or publications you’d recommend?