Having deconstructed one of his bugaboos in Against Deconstruction
(not reviewed), Ellis (German Literature./Univ. of Calif., Santa
Cruz) now goes after the race-gender-class triad of academic
political correctness. The Culture Wars have slowed only a little
in the media since the first salvos in the early '90s, fired in
such books as Dinesh d'Souza's Illiberal Education. Ellis, the
secretary of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, and
an occasional writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education on
political correctness, is slightly more interested in the
intellectual underpinnings of literary radicals than in fracases at
tenure meetings and conferences; but he is deeply concerned about
the deleterious effect of both on academic freedom and higher
learning. As something of an old-fashioned humanist, Ellis's style
tends to be measured and levelheaded when he's analyzing the
Western tradition and the recurrence of philosophic radicalism and
intellectual orthodoxy. His lively and telling discussion of
previous incarnations of political correctness include Tacitus'
efforts to romanticize German barbarians, Rousseau's vilification
of European civilization, Herder's volk-worshiping cultural
relativism, and Marx's materialist dialectics. He is also well
versed in the modern schools of literary criticism and provides an
excellent perspective on the evolution of the New Criticism to
Deconstruction and New Historicism. When taking on the opposing
forces in contemporary academic struggles, his methodical approach
is especially adept at showing up the the sloppiness of cultural
critic Fredric Jameson and the unscientific feminist psychology of
Peggy McIntosh. Sometimes the book gives way to petty polemic, as
when addressing more general trends in feminism and campus
activism, but Ellis's humanist dislike of cant and jargon is well
matched with his open-mindedness about the values of literature.
Another fusillade in the Culture Wars from an entrenched position,
but one of higher than usual caliber. (Kirkus Reviews)
In the span of less than a generation, university humanities
departments have experienced an almost unbelievable reversal of
attitudes, now attacking and undermining what had previously been
considered best and most worthy in the Western tradition. John M.
Ellis here scrutinizes the new regime in humanistic studies. He
offers a careful, intelligent analysis that exposes the weaknesses
of notions that are fashionable in humanities today. In a clear
voice, with forceful logic, he speaks out against the orthodoxy
that has installed race, gender, and class perspectives at the
center of college humanities curricula. Ellis begins by showing
that political correctness is a recurring impulse of Western
society and one that has a discouraging history. He reveals the
contradictions and misconceptions that surround the new orthodoxy
and demonstrates how it is most deficient just where it imagines
itself to be superior. Ellis contends that humanistic education
today, far from being historically aware, relies on anachronistic
thinking; far from being skeptical of Western values, represents a
ruthless and unskeptical Western extremism; far from being valuable
in bringing political perspectives to bear, presents politics that
are crude and unreal; far from being sophisticated in matters of
"theory," is largely ignorant of the range and history of critical
theory; far from valuing diversity, is unable to respond to the
great sweep of literature. In a concluding chapter, Ellis surveys
the damage that has been done to higher education and examines the
prospects for change.
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