Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Some of the reviews here are absolutely ridiculous, clearly the liberals who trash this book have never read it. To compare an "anarchist" who is marginalized on a college campus to disenfranchised conservative activists is a bad joke. News flash: conservatism is a mainstream political ideology embraced by tens of millions, as currently demonstrated by a Republican Congress and President. If the point of going to college is to become educated then surely in the great buffet of ideas available on campus there should be a place at the table for conservatism. There is an atmosphere of hostility toward campus conseratives, or any unwilling recruit to radical dictums, that quickly brands them as racist, homophobic, or whatever mainstream smear will stick. Notice you can be as socialist as hell in college, and side with Castro or Marx - despite the freedoms these men crushed and the misery they created - and never be labeled a damn thing. No, on college campuses, any opinion nestled between Howard Dean and Mao is commendable, and shows how enlightened you are. This is not higher education, and Mr. Shaprio - without aligning himself with ANY point of view - calls a spade a spade with the hope of encouraging more academic freedom. I read many of the stories and anecdotes in this book, and though I finished college over 10 years ago, my experiences were quite similar. That speech codes and liberal/socialist orthodoxies prevail in today's "universities" of higher learning is a poorly-kept secret. Liberal administrators and tenured professors put associate professors through the ringer to publish in liberal/socialist academic journals in order to win tenure, where these sheltered and insecure leaches on our economy then ladel out their personal opinions and philosophies to a young, uneducated and captive audience. This atmosphere is absolutely suffocating to alternative points of view, especially points of view that veer right of center. My department Dean - whose classes I actually enjoyed, would assume I was liberal and spend long minutes offering leftist viewpoints during office visits. When I good-naturedly informed him I was conservative, he grew visibly uncomfortable and eyed me like I had dynamite strapped to my chest. An English professor once spent 2 classroom lectures lauding the liberalism (or non-materialism) of Thoreau while castigating Ben Franklin because he believed earning money was a virtue. I used to wonder how it would affect HIS lifestyle if most of the parents of the kids to whom he was lecturing adopted Thoreau's lifestyle, and opted out of spending $25K a year for the privilege of attending his lecture. As with many leftist professors, disagreement with him was scorned and agreement with his thesis was praised. So it went at my college whenever politics arose in the classroom. Never did I actually meet an overtly conservative professor in 4 years, I don't recall a professor actually encouraging open debate and discussion. In one year we had visits to campus from both Mario Cuomo and Ronald Reagan. Super Mario's speech was respected and he was unmolested by protests. The liberals, on the other hand, kicked and screamed at Reagan's appearance, first hoping to cancel the speech, then took to blocking the entrance. So much for promoting free speech and the open exchange of ideas. Mr. Shapiro is dang fine writer with a bright future. This book is a funny, readable and meaty text that continues in the fine tradition of academic indictments begun by such books as Alan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" and Dinesh D'Souza's "Illiberal Education." To the liberals who will continue to leave 1 star reviews without reading this book, please understand conservatives go heavy into debt to finance their college education, and just want to have their opinions expressed freely and openly on campus without being smeared and attacked, and without fear of grade degradation by college professors who think Johny Kerry is a right-winger. It is great news for all that Mr. Shapiro's book is a best-seller. It is required reading for matriculating college students and all involved in political debate on campus. Perhaps with a little luck, conservatives will have the same freedom to express their opinions as enjoyed by your average anti-American anarchist.