Is not America the West's very West, from the East Coast across the continent, "Western" even in its latest, pervasive piety--diversity? For diversity-preachment, in spite of all its excesses, is a recognition that this continent hosts--except for a tiny remnant of "Native" Americans--an immigrant population, who themselves, or through their…

In this article, the author expands on "The Scandal of Social Work Education," a National Association of Scholars study documenting the commitment to left-wing "social justice" in social work programs at ten major public institutions. He presents a critical exploration of social justice ideology in academic and professional mental health training…

"Paradise Lost" explores the themes of human frailty, failure, and redemption following humanity's "original sin," eating of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. This original sin resulted in human beings being banished from an earthly paradise and compelled to wander eternally a world fraught with danger, despair, desolation, and death.…

In this article, the author offers a "Pierce-ing," rational dissection of the notion of cultural equivalence that exposes the hypocrisy of its purveyors. He tackles three major argument lines--the Probabilities Argument, the Internal-Division Argument, and the Change Argument--and proves that it is simply very improbable that culture, in any…

Over the past 20 years, the literature in teacher education has built a discourse around diversity. Much of it is predicated on the vast multicultural education literature developing since the late 1970s, a literature that is very much activist- and advocacy-oriented. It is also a literature largely ignored by "traditional" academics, ostensibly…

In this article, the author takes a stand against the unthinking evocation of so-called white privilege he found on campus and among his students at California State University, Chico, and argues for the reinstatement of true diversity--intellectual diversity. He says people in the academia should be clear in the classroom, on committees, in…

Globalization has brought more and more peoples and societies around the world into contact with "international" standards of law, commerce, and communication. That process has also enabled a number of formerly underdeveloped societies to experience extraordinary patterns of economic growth, especially in the last third of the twentieth century.…

In this article, the author reviews several books on world history from the 1920s to the 1940s. These include books authored by a diverse group: H.G. Wells, "Outline of History" (Macmillan, 1920); James Henry Breasted, "Ancient Times, A History of the Early World" (published in 1916 by Ginn and Company and largely rewritten in 1935); M.…

Academics are inclined to think of their work as a pure calling. But the fact remains that the profession of higher education--like all professions--is embedded in various rules, assumptions, and programs that further the fiduciary obligations of the profession and also protect the rights, agendas and self-interests of the profession's members.…

The announcement in June 2007 by Antioch University that it would be closing Antioch College produced a great deal of commentary. One of the better offerings was a 2007 piece in the "Weekly Standard" by Charlotte Allen, which ran under the title "Death by Political Correctness." Her analysis presents a complex picture, but Allen leaves no doubt…

Advocates of preferences generally claim the moral high ground, insisting that we need them to advance the common social good. To oppose preferences, therefore, is "to act immorally." Preference's champions view them as weapons against hierarchy and oppression. Their foes stress individual identity and autonomy. The outcome of the debate will…

Race preferences and the postmodern version of multiculturalism have always triggered opposition in academia, but it has seldom come from the political left. Now things are changing. Growing unease in the academic "priesthood" over preferences and multiculturalism may herald their end. Longstanding opponents of racial discrimination and identity…

A lot of people probably believe that a liberal education is a broad education that exposes students to a variety of academic disciplines. This once translated, in many universities, to a "General Studies" core requirement consisting mostly of introductory courses to various disciplines that were loosely related to one another around general…

In this carefully documented essay, Russell K. Nieli outlines the major transformation in American higher education that began at the end of the nineteenth century. Today's research- and vocation-driven private universities began as Christian institutions founded by zealous evangelizers, while public colleges embraced a watered-down version of the…

The tally of occurrences of a PC buzzword on academic and other websites seems to corroborate the suspicion that we're quickly abandoning "e pluribus unum" as the governing principle for treating individuals justly. In its place is the new image of America as a melange of competing interest groups. In this NAS research on comparative usage,…