COULD McCarthyism be making a comeback in the US? If so, it seems the target
this time is not Hollywood and the Communist Party of America, but American
universities.
Writing in February’s Harper’s Magazine, editor in chief Lewis
Lapham draws readers’ attention to a report he describes as “a guide to the
preferred forms of free speech”, entitled Defending Civilization.
Produced by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA)—a group of
conservatives including Lynne Cheney, the wife of the vice-president—the
report is subtitled “How our universities are failing America and what can be
done about it”.
The…
