Book Reviews : Academic Freedom. By RUSSELL KIRK. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company. 1955. Pp. 210. $3.75.)
| Author | R.A. Nisbet |
| Date | 01 March 1956 |
| Published date | 01 March 1956 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295600900147 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
216
parts
of
his
thesis
by
calling
attention
to
his
apparently
unconscious
pro-
pensity
for
half,truths
wrapped
up
in
an
endless
parade
of
over-neat
formulas.
Is
it
not
time
for
the
historical
profession,
if
not
for
the
lay
public,
to
begin
cultivating
a
healthy
suspicion
of
the
current
tendency
to
write
historical
analyses
in
terms
of
algebraic
formulas
and
then
to
try
to
define
and
establish
those
formulas
on
a
basis
of
preconceived
assumptions?
Analysis
of
this
kind
almost
of
necessity
involves
a
secondary
but
a
serious
fault
-
dogmatic
assertions
of
debatable
statements
that
are
neither
ex-
plained
nor
adequately
followed
up.
Regardless
of
the
competence
of
the
scholarship
from
which
the
writing
emerges
(and
in
this
instance
the
scholarship
is
staggering)
such
dogmatism
is
unjustifiable
even
when
it
implies
a
compliment
to
the
reader’s
intelligence
as
a
moderating
and
modi-
fying
antidote
for
impassioned
over-generalizations.
For
provocative
and
penetrating
comment
on
innumerable
phases
of
American
life
and
thought,
this
book
is
a
brilliant
example
of
social
analy-
sis ;
but
many
readers
will
be
left
wondering
what
the
net
result
really
is
in
this
particular
instance
of
reinterpretation
of
history
in
terms
of
philo-
sophical
symbolism.
Rutgers
University.
MARK
M.
HEALD.
Academic
Freedom.
By
RUSSELL
KIRK.
(Chicago:
Henry
Regnery
Com-
pany.
1955.
Pp. 210.
$3.75.)
All
who
are
familiar
with
Mr.
Kirk’s
earlier
works,
particularly
the
widely
read
and
influential
The
Conservcttive
Mind,
will
inevitably
ex-
pect
both
scholarly
substance
and
imaginative
insight
in
any
treatment
of
academic
freedom.
They
will
not
be
disappointed.
This
is
a
book
with
both
root
and
branch,
and
it
is
written
with
all
the
boldness
and
light
that
we
have
come
to
expect
from
this
brilliant
young
scholar.
In
a
certain
sense,
academic
freedom,
as
a
subject,
is
made
to
order
for
Mr.
Kirk,
for
its
historical
source
lies
essentially
in
that
conservative,
preindustrial,
pre-
democratic
tradition
which
Mr.
Kirk
has
already
done
so
much
to
clarify.
In
so
brief
a
review
as
this,
one
must
necessarily
confine
himself
to
general
appreciation.
The
author
defines
academic
freedom
as
&dquo;security
against
hazards
to
the
pursuit
of
truth
by
those
persons
whose
lives
are
dedicated
to
conserving
the
intellectual
heritage
of
the
ages
and
to
extend-
ing
the
realm
of
knowledge.
It
is
the
right
or
group
of
rights
intended
to
make
it
possible
for
certain
persons ...
to
teach
truthfully
and
to
employ
their
reason
to
the
full
extent
of
their
intellectual
powers.&dquo;
This
is
an
ex-
cellent
definition,
and
what
Mr.
Kirk
succeeds
in
doing
is
not
merely
to
demonstrate
the
relevance,
indeed,
indispensability,
of
this
freedom
to
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