God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom"

Rating:
Summary: Provative Criticism
Review: Buckley's 1951 conservative critique of higher education remains a viable argument today. Buckley, a recent graduate of Yale University at the time he wrote his book, feared that the mission of the university was being ignored in the name of academic honesty without the knowledge or approval of the alumni who give the Corporation the money it needs to operate. Yale's historical goal was to prepare men to be good Christians and American citizens, religious "individualists" in Buckley's terms, but he felt that professors with personal beliefs opposed to these ideas were diverting students from the path they and their parents were promised by the school's mission statement. It is a provacative argument whether you agree with it or not and is well worth exploring just to think a little deeper about higher education in America. The book is dated and the ample evidence Buckley used to prove his case is now rather meaningless to the contemporary reader, but it is still worth reading. I think most people interested in higher education will find the argument interesting even if they think it is ridiculous and it is well written and easy to understand so it is a good way to get your mind working.

Rating:
Summary: Dated, Unfortunately
Review: In God & Man at Yale, first published in 1951, William F. Buckley stingingly critiqued Yale on two grounds: Its academic departments' failure to uphold the Christian ideals that the university professed, and their tendency to disparage "individualism." (He uses the term "individualism" as an antonym for collectivism, but noted in his 1977 introduction that, were he writing the book in the 1970s, he would have chosen a different term.)

If anything, his critique is truer today than when he wrote this book. While the specter of Communism has receded, institutions of higher learning have become a bastion for trendy anti-Americanism. One need only examine some of the shameful remarks made by academics in the wake of September 11 to understand the truth of this statement. (Examples include the now-infamous "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote," as well as the lesser-known but no less odious pronouncement that the American flag is "a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression.")

Unfortunately, this book provides a minimal guide to understanding the current problems with academia. Buckley himself recognized that his specific argument about Yale's failings would quickly become dated. As he notes in his 1977 introduction: "For years and years after this book came out I would receive letters from Yale alumni asking for an authoritative account of 'how the situation at Yale is now.' After about three or four years I wrote that I was incompetent to give such an account. I am as incompetent to judge Yale education today as most of the critics who reviewed this book were incompetent to correct me when I judged it twenty-five years ago."

The dated nature of the book is exacerbated by the fact that the information he puts forward is highly specific: There is much discussion of professors who left the school decades ago, and textbooks that have undergone extensive revision since his writing, or more often, are no longer used.

Despite the dated nature of his arguments about Yale, there is much in the book that is worth reading. His new introduction, describing the vitriolic response that the initial publication of God & Man at Yale engendered, is highly amusing. He also puts forward a cogent refutation of the argument for "academic freedom" that was (and is) often advanced when the ideologies promoted by institutions of higher learning are questioned, as well as an appeal to alumni generally to ensure that their values are not subverted by the universities that they support.

Unfortunately, however, the majority of the text deals with dated material of limited utility to contemporary readers.

Rating:
Summary: OUR CAMPUSES IN CONTEXT
Review: Long before the battles between the Randians, Goldwaterites and Rockefeller wing of the GOP; before the Reagan Revolution and the Contract with America, even before Whittaker Chambers' "Witness", there was young Bill Buckley, Russell Kirk and a few little-known economists preaching conservatism. Lost in the McCarthy rhetoric, the underpinnings of conservatism were drowned out, but Buckley was and continues to be a voice that gives it reason.

The prescience of this book is in its dissection of liberalism on college campuses, and centers on the modernist swing away from God and towards Man. Buckley's best argument throughout the work might be called the "marketplace of ideas," which today conservatives are winning. He points out the political views of many of the families who send their kids to college, particularly Yale. Most of the parents are found to disagree with the new Leftist stridency of Yale and other colleges, but the parents have little if any choice in the matter of getting their children educated within a more balanced environment. This situation has not gotten better over the years. Reading "God and Man At Yale" teaches us that campus radicalism did not begin during the Vietnam War.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: OUR CAMPUSES IN CONTEXT
Review: Long before the battles between the Randians, Goldwaterites and Rockefeller wing of the GOP; before the Reagan Revolution and the Contract with America, even before Whittaker Chambers' "Witness", there was young Bill Buckley, Russell Kirk and a few little-known economists preaching conservatism. Lost in the McCarthy rhetoric, the underpinnings of conservatism were drowned out, but Buckley was and continues to be a voice that gives it reason.

The prescience of this book is in its dissection of liberalism on college campuses, and centers on the modernist swing away from God and towards Man. Buckley's best argument throughout the work might be called the "marketplace of ideas," which today conservatives are winning. He points out the political views of many of the families who send their kids to college, particularly Yale. Most of the parents are found to disagree with the new Leftist stridency of Yale and other colleges, but the parents have little if any choice in the matter of getting their children educated within a more balanced environment. This situation has not gotten better over the years. Reading "God and Man At Yale" teaches us that campus radicalism did not begin during the Vietnam War.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A Bit Dated, But a Genuine Classic
Review: Some might find it hard to imagine a time when it was shocking to find that students in an Ivy League university were being taught, even sometimes indoctrinated, by socialists and atheists. Today that's about as amazing as the news that water flows downhill.

Mr. Buckley has been right about most things for the last half century. He was very young when he wrote this book, and it was a sign of even better things to come.

Rating:
Summary: Common Sense View of Education Too Profound for the Elite
Review: Superbly written. Easy to understand. And full of common sense. It was probably its "common sense" that caused liberal academicians of Yale and other prestigious "institutes of higher learning" to reject Buckley's assessment and recommendations. For the "wisdom" was (and is) that if it's not sufficiently profound and complex, then it cannot be relevant or useful. Yet, Buckley's common sense suggestions for reforming the methods of education were (and are) right on target. By rejecting what he said out of hand, the stage was set for post-modern relativism that is rampant at "institutes of higher learning" as we enter the 21st century. A lot has happened since Buckley wrote this book, including the discrediting of collectivist ideologies and the collapse of Communism. But despite the passage of time, Buckley's words still ring true because they are rooted in conservative principles - principles based on the constancy of man's nature. My only regret is that since the writing of this book, Buckley has embraced the "snobbish" dialect of the english language. Consequently, his more recent books repel the simple man in search of common sense. Pity too since Buckley still dispenses much common sense.

Rating:
Summary: A Buckley Classic
Review: This seminal work of one of the most courageous conservative thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries laid the groundwork on which numerous other media voices built. He descrbes how it all started when he was an undergraduate at Yale University from 1946-1950. He writes from his conscious. Buckley is precise in describing how he felt traditional American values were being ignored, undermined, and distorted by academics. He makes his case by citing specific classes, instructors, and textbooks. In the revised edition he brings readers up to date on how critics and the public responded when the book originally came out. Buckley earned the right to be the quintessential role model for conservatives because of his courage and gift of clearly communicating his argument in a logical manner. There are no ad hominem fallacies here or in any of his writings. He confronts isses head on. He even discusses his motive for writing the book by saying it is tied to his love for his alma mater and the country in general. By that he means his desire is for constructive change. It is in pointing out the errors that he hopes to achieve the positive resolutions he seeks. Buckley has remained a voice worthy of an audience in the marketplace of ideas for decades. This is the book that launched him and it is worth reading at any point in time.