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Title: The Opening of the American Mind by Lawrence W Levine ISBN: 0-8070-3119-4 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 14 August, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.91 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: readable but inadequate
Comment: mr. levine's book, though balanced and thoroughly researched, is by no means an adequate response to bloom's controversial CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND. mr. levine is a historian skilled at manipulating quotes and thereby giving us a convincing (but distorted) picture of the conservative critics in higher education, while, alas, avoiding the central question. he simply ignores the real issues troubling campuses all over the country today. he makes his best point by demonstrating that, historically, the canon has been fluid and changing; but that hardly justifies what is being taught in college courses today. it's not so much that the multiculturalist "canon" is wrong or that it would corrupt the old values--the real problem is that almost all of the new books are weak and boring and customer-friendly. THE ESSENTIAL PARADOX, FOR ANYONE WHO HAS PAID ATTENTION TO TODAY'S COLLEGE EDUCATION, IS THAT IN THE ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE MINDS OF STUDENTS, THE "ISTS" HAVE IN FACT CLOSED AND NARROWED MANY, ALL TOO MANY, WITH BOOKS THAT HARDLY EVER STUMULATE A BRAIN CELL.
whatever bloom's faults and prejudices may be, his book is written with genuine passion and concern, and ten years after its publication it disturbs us still, because so much of what it says applies to what we see everyday on every american campus. mr. levine is the typical academic star of today, always correct and smooth, but he has to do better than this to meet bloom's challenge.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautiful book-a gift that makes you proud of this country
Comment: Levine's book was one of the only things I could bear to read after Sept. 11. It is a book that looks at what is right with this country. Of course, on one level, it is about the 'culture wars' but on another level it is about what it means to be an American. Do we define it with apple pie and stars and stripes? Or with an understanding of the development of our polyglot, mongrel culture that challenges and infuriates? Are we just not very good Europeans, or are we something different? This book made me proud, for the first time in my life, to be an American, seeing it as an actual identity, rather than the lack of any real culture. It is a gift to understand our history through this lense. Strongly recommend!
Rating: 2
Summary: Misses the point
Comment: Like the longevity of most useless academic fads, it seems the bane of ideological multiculturalism will be with us for the foreseeable future. The question for its opponents (or those who would merely like to inject some common sense into it) is simply, "What can we do about it?" Or, more pessimistically, "Is there anything we can do about it?" If one believes Lawrence Levine in The Opening of the American Mind, there's nothing to get uptight about. To him, multiculturalism is just an extension of the university's (and thus, academia's in general) continuing evolution. This indeed may be true; however, Levine, while claiming the academy "has always been political," conveniently glosses over modern (ideological) multiculturalism's [more and more] overt leftist agenda. And, he appears to contradict himself: while praising the increasing "openness" of the university, he blatantly fails to see the "clamp down" on dissenting political views - that is, views deemed "insensitive" (in the university's overused jargon) to any group that campus leaders declare.
Levine chides critics of the modern university saying they foster fears of "an eroding hierarchy and the encroachment of democratic society into the academe..." How does Levine define "democratic?" Most folks equate democracy with freedom, which includes freedom of thought. Ideological multiculturalism, however, does not allow for this facet of democracy; in fact, it has more in common with the former East Bloc definition of "democracy," which was an oxymoron. Apparently as an example of this "new" democracy, Levine states that the university "is one of the more successfully integrated and heterogeneous institutions in the United States." He notes that Berkeley has gone from 68.6 percent white in 1974 to 32.4 percent now; but in addition, the number of Asians increased almost 25 percent over the same time frame, while Hispanics increased over 10 percent and blacks 1.1 percent. What Levine never touches is a prominent reason why these numbers changed so dramatically - and this is true for campuses nationwide: preferential admissions policies based on race. A better example of the "new" democracy would be the military or even professional sports where merit and hard work still are held in esteem. How boring would sports be if teams had to meet racial requirements like universities? And even now, at Berkeley and other institutions (especially in California), Asians are suffering the fate of being "over-represented."
Speaking of "requirements," Levine exhaustively details why it's no big deal that Western Civilization courses are no longer mandatory, yet there's no word as to why multicultural requirements now exist in place of "Western Civ." He demonstrates that Stanford's Western Civ-replacing C.I.V. program has readings such as Ariel by José Enrique Rodó and Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Díaz and claims that these are what critics like William Bennett and Dinesh D'Souza are upset about. Hardly. Levine, who says he despises anecdotal evidence, cleverly uses it here. Ariel and Account are far from left-wing ideological readings (I know - I've read them). He plainly refuses to discuss what Bennett and D'Souza actually criticize - material like I, Rigoberta Menchu.
Levine "catches" himself at one point during research on African-American writers, claiming, "I soon realized that I was falling into the same pattern of allowing leadership to speak for followers." Interesting. What do we see on campus today? "Leaders" within the university and student groups "deciding" what's best for their followers. Levine can easily lament his error; on the other hand, folks like Alan Gribben at the University of Texas suffer a lifetime ostracism merely for voicing a protest against the "prevailing sensitivity." Levine further says that "those who oppose current developments in higher education have been more successful outside than inside the universities." Why is this? Is it because those that advocate the "current developments" are of like mind and ideology and work tooth and nail to silence the opposition (like Mr. Gribben)? Wouldn't it make sense that opponents of the "current developments" would have to look elsewhere to voice their views other than in the academic "ivory tower?"
Levine also spends a lot of time claiming that the university mirrors the "real world" - it *is* the real world, he says. But is it really? Poll after poll shows that a majority of the American population considers themselves politically "moderate to conservative." On the other hand, a professor who overtly claims that political ideology will more often than not find it difficult to advance his career in the realm of the university. Most Americans believe in achievement through merit, not preferential treatment based on race; yet here, too, the university sets itself apart from the "real world." An interesting section in Levine's book is where he takes a jab at Lynn Cheyney for claiming "today's students can disagree with professors. But to do so is to take a risk." He asks, "When was it not risky for a socialist student to confront her economics professor....for an atheist to confront his religion professor...?" Indeed, this is true, and of course a student should have a right to feel comfortable in expressing his or her opinion. But look at the above again carefully - a socialist or an atheist was then, and is now, clearly part of a small minority of the American population. What we see on campus today, however, are students who share the views of the majority of the American public who are reluctant to express their views in the classroom. Doesn't this seem a bit strange?
I believe the fact that ideological multiculturalism is contrary to the views of most Americans is what will eventually lead to its demise. I've continually used "ideological" before "multiculturalism" with good reason. Most people would not deny, given the rapid demographic changes in our country, that multicultural studies are appropriate and a good idea. It's only when leftist ideology-masquerading-as-multiculturalism comes into play that the general public starts objecting. As a result, the primary solution to combating ideological multiculturalism is to expose it. Richard Bernstein's (Dictatorship of Virtue) stories of Alan Gribben and the Committee for Quality Education in Brookline, Massachusetts are perfect examples. But it isn't easy. Any "dissenters," as the above folks will testify, must be prepared to face attacks possibly more fierce than those directed against a presidential candidate! These attacks usually will not address the subject matter but will be quite personal. After all, as Richard Bernstein notes, the ideological multiculturalists are most "virtuous;" to object to them makes one evil incarnate.
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Title: CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND by Allan Bloom, Saul Bellow ISBN: 0671657151 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 May, 1988 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: All the Essential Half-Truths About Higher Education by George Dennis O'Brien ISBN: 0226616576 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985 by Steven Brint, Jerome Karabel ISBN: 0195048164 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: The Idea of the University: A Reexamination by Jaroslav Pelikan ISBN: 0300058349 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: February, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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