Daniel Gordon Publishes ‘What Is Academic Freedom? A Century of Debate, 1915-Present’

Just out from Routledge Press, and available for free online, “What Is Academic Freedom? A Century of Debate, 1915-Present” is the latest book by UMass Amherst historian Daniel Gordon. 

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The book explores the history of the debate, from 1915 to the present, about the meaning of academic freedom, particularly around political activism on college campuses. According to the publisher, “the book introduces readers to the origins of the modern research university in the United States, the professionalization of the role of the university teacher, and the rise of alternative conceptions of academic freedom challenging the professional model and radicalizing the image of the university. In its six chapters, leading thinkers on the subject of academic freedom—Arthur Lovejoy, Angela Davis, Alexander Meiklejohn, Edward W. Said, among others—spring to life.”

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The book centers on questions including: “What is the relationship between freedom of speech and academic freedom? Should communists be allowed to teach? What constitutes unacceptable political ‘indoctrination’ in the classroom? What are the implications for academic freedom of creating Black Studies and Women's Studies departments? Do academic boycotts, such as those directed against Israel, violate the spirit of academic freedom?” Gordon notes that rather than opining as a judge, the book provides context for these debates, aiming to flesh out the legal, philosophical, political, and semantic disagreements in each controversy.

What Is Academic Freedom? is written to appeal to readers across the social sciences and humanities with interests in scholarly freedom and academic life. It is available through Routledge in hardcover, paperback, and open access.

A professor of history at UMass Amherst and co-editor in chief of the journal Society, Daniel Gordon earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago and a Master of the Study of Law degree from the Yale Law School. He is the author of “Citizens Without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670-1789,” the editor of “The Anthem Companion to Alexis de Tocqueville,” and the author of many articles on free speech and religious freedom in France and the United States.