Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)
BOOK REVIEWS - John C. Chalberg: Dinesh D'Souza: Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus. The Free Press, 1991. 319 pp
and others of similar persuasion may have defined freedom of speech to mean the right to "talk dirty" in public. But they also advertised themselves as individuals who were quite seriously interested in the free and open exchange of ideas. At least that seemed to be the case when the "Free Speech Movement" was young and innocent —and (by today's radical standards) foolish. There will surely be conservatives (in the American sense of that term, meaning traditionalists and capitalists of all varieties, rather than unrepentant Marxists of the erstwhile Soviet variety), who will read this book, shudder at its contents, and agree with both its perspective and its program for reform. Those same conservatives, if that had at least reached adulthood and conservatism in time to, say, choose between Kennedy and Nixon, probably condemned the "Free Speech Movement" in its infancy. Now, however, they can lust for the "good old days" when American radicals were naive enough to actually believe in the market place of ideas. No doubt Dinesh D'Souza will be accused of pursuing a political —and conservative —agenda of his own. A former editor of the notorious (by leftist standards) Dartmouth Review, D'Souza is at least a "fellow traveler," if not a "card-carrying" member of the American conservative movement. But Illiberal Education is not a latter-day Popular Front manifesto for the American right. He realizes that the battle he has entered into will inevitably be political, but his ultimate goal is the de-politicization of the American university. In that sense, his agenda is very similar to that of educational reformers in Central and Eastern Europe. Having been denied power virtually anywhere else in American society, the left, especially the hard left, has taken refuge in the university. Having been willing to meet the enemy on his own ground, D'Souza has the decency —and the wit —to give his enemies a fair hearing —and sufficient rope with which to hang themselves. His plan of action was to interview ordinary students and activists students, apolitical faculty and highly political faculty, weak-kneed administrators, well-intentioned administrators, and blatantly political administrators. Representatives from each category are provided enough printed space in which to state, unadorned, his or her case. D'Souza offers 161
