History lesson : a race odyssey / Mary Lefkowitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lefkowitz, Mary R., 1935-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lefkowitz, Mary R., 1935-.

Lefkowitz, Mary R.

Wellesley College.

History--Study and teaching (Higher)--Massachusetts.

History.

Postmodernism and higher education.

Racism in higher education.

Antisemitism in higher education.

Academic freedom.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (208 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

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

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

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

ISBN:

1-282-08945-5

9786612089459

0-300-14519-5

OCLC:

666930730