1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910778094003321

Autore

Lefkowitz Mary R. <1935->

Titolo

History lesson [[electronic resource] ] : a race odyssey / / Mary Lefkowitz

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, Conn., : Yale University Press, c2008

ISBN

1-282-08945-5

9786612089459

0-300-14519-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (208 p.)

Disciplina

907.1/17447

Soggetti

History - Study and teaching (Higher) - Massachusetts

Postmodernism and higher education

Racism in higher education

Antisemitism in higher education

Academic freedom

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-187) and index.

Nota di contenuto

A racist incident? -- Discovering afrocentrism -- Two views of ancient history -- Turning myths into history -- A new anti-Semitism -- Truth or slander? -- Reparations? -- A racist polemic? -- Turning history into fiction.

Sommario/riassunto

In the early 1990's, Classics professor Mary Lefkowitz discovered that one of her faculty colleagues at Wellesley College was teaching his students that Greek culture had been stolen from Africa and that Jews were responsible for the slave trade. This book tells the disturbing story of what happened when she spoke out. Lefkowitz quickly learned that to investigate the origin and meaning of myths composed by people who have for centuries been dead and buried is one thing, but it is quite another to critique myths that living people take very seriously. She also found that many in academia were reluctant to challenge the fashionable idea that truth is merely a form of opinion. For her insistent defense of obvious truths about the Greeks and the Jews, Lefkowitz was embroiled in turmoil for a decade. She faced institutional indifference, angry colleagues, reverse racism, anti-Semitism, and even a lawsuit



intended to silence her. In History Lesson Lefkowitz describes what it was like to experience directly the power of both postmodernism and compensatory politics. She offers personal insights into important issues of academic values and political correctness, and she suggests practical solutions for the divisive and painful problems that arise when a political agenda takes precedence over objective scholarship. Her forthright tale uncovers surprising features in the landscape of higher education and an unexpected need for courage from those who venture there.