Introduction
Part I: The Politics of Conservative Professors
Chapter 1: The Conservative Minority
Chapter 2: The Republican Party and its Discontents
Part II: Life In the Progressive University
Chapter 3: The Bias Debate
Chapter 4: Closeted Conservatives
Chapter 5: Open Conservatism and its Challenges
Chapter 6: The Limits of Liberalism
Part III: Should We Care?
Chapter 7: The Consequences of a Progressive Professoriate
Epilogue: Affirmative Action for Conservatives?
Jon A. Shields is Associate Professor in the Department of
Government at Claremont McKenna College.
Joshua M. Dunn Sr. is Associate Professor of Political Science and
Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Government and
the Individual at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
"Jon Shields and Josh Dunn have produced our first reliable study
of academic conservatives, who have found a more comfortable home
at the university than many of us imagined. But they remain a
slender minority, especially in the humanities and social sciences,
which makes the academy a less educational place for all of us. I
hope that this careful and eloquent book reminds my fellow liberals
about the vital role that conservative professors can play in
academic life, if we can open our minds to them."
--Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of Education and History, New York
University
"Technological revolutions, acute financial pressures, and deep
cultural shifts undermining the traditional humanistic curriculum
are forcing a profound rethinking and restructuring of American
higher education today, about which the professoriate at its
epicenter sometimes seems the least perceptive and prepared. In the
midst of this protracted upheaval, Passing on the Right raises the
difficult question of political ideology and its implications
for
academia's mission. It will only help higher education and the
society that sustains it if this book is widely read and
debated."
--Christian Smith, Wm. R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology,
University of Notre Dame
"Why have most of the humanities and social sciences become
political monocultures? Shields and Dunn have written the
authoritative treatise, integrating all previous work in an
accessible and fair-minded way, and adding in empathy - the rarely
heard voices of conservative professors. All academics should read
this book, as should anyone who wants to improve the scholarship,
prestige, and public funding of the academy."
--Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are
Divided by Politics and Religion
"Passing on the Right, although written by two self-described
academic conservatives, rejects some common conservative critiques
of academia-for example, that it is not hospitable to conservative
professors, and that liberal professors are engaging in widespread
ideological indoctrination of their students. On the other hand,
the book marshals evidence and arguments that increasing the now
very small numbers of conservative faculty members in the
humanities and
social sciences would enrich teaching and scholarship for everyone
in the university community, and also benefit society at large. It
challenges the champions of diversity to appreciate the
important
contributions that conservative faculty members-academia's least
celebrated minority-can make to a truly liberal education."
--Nadine Strossen, Former President of the American Civil Liberties
Union
"Robust and uninhibited intellectual inquiry should be at the
center of the American Academy. As a revolutionary Christian I
welcome more intense dialogue with my conservative brothers and
sisters. This brave book helps us move toward this Socratic
condition!"
--Cornel West
"I found this book subtle and thought-provoking throughout."
--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
"Passing on the Right actually manages to be one of the most
optimistic books on American higher education by conservative
authors in recent memory." --The American Interest
"The interviews and supplementary survey on which the book is based
yielded findings that are not only interesting, but vital to
understanding the environments in which college students learn -
and in which their own political identities are shaped."-- Inside
Higher Ed
"[Shields and Dunn] have produced a clear-eyed and rational
discussion of modern academia that steers clear of polemics and
challenges the dogmas of both the left and the right. . . . [They]
make a strong case for the importance of conservative voices in
modern academia and for why conservatives should not abandon the
field of higher education to the progressive left." --The Weekly
Standard
"Passing on the Right does, in fact, venture into great detail to
paint this portrait, sharing numerous interviews with anonymous
conservative professors and providing research regarding the plight
of the right-wing academic...This combination of empirical and
anecdotal data provides an inside look on what it's really like to
be a conservative professor--does holding such an identity mean
facing discrimination and losing friends or does it mean being
highly successful?
Shields and Dunn contend that the answer is both."
--Amber Athey, Campus Reform
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