The Right To Learn
Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From leaders on the front lines of the battle for academic freedom in higher education, an empowering collection on fighting back against anti-CRT policies, book banning, and more
Spanning over 40 years of contested history through to today, The Right to Learn speaks out fearlessly against the far right’s decades-long war against intellectual freedom. This essential anthology outlines and contextualizes the culture wars’ demonization of critical race theory, Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, and other hot-button issues.
With an introduction that places the current crisis within the broader context of the ongoing attacks on American democracy, The Right to Learn features the testimony and analysis of activists, scholars, and attorneys with firsthand experience in the struggle against well-funded conservative groups’ assaults on academic freedom.
An impassioned, inspired resource for those fighting on the ground for the right to learn, this anthology is structured in 3 parts designed to equip educators with the necessary tools to understand the battle—and to fight back.
PART 1 explores educational gag laws, featuring, among others, PEN America staff members Jonathan Friedman, Jeremy C. Young, and James Tager.PART 2 offers perspectives on key issues from those on the front lines: activists, educators, and attorneys like Dennis Parker, director of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.PART 3 investigates the implications of undermining academic freedom, with insight from experts such as Sharon D. Austin, one of the professors barred by the University of Florida from testifying against a restrictive voting rights law and a plaintiff in the main legal case against Ron DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE Act.”
As they confront today’s attack on higher education, The Right to Learn’s expert contributors reveal that what’s at stake is the pursuit of the real-world and contemporary knowledge a democratic polity requires
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For this enlightening essay collection, political scientist Johnson (Black Power in the Suburbs), film studies scholar Ruth (It's Not Free Speech), and historian Schrecker (The Lost Promise) bring together educators and activists to respond to recent right-wing attempts to ban teaching material pertaining to race, gender identity, and sexuality. According to the editors, these bans constitute a serious attack on the liberal principle of unfettered inquiry and, consequently, on democracy itself. The basic facts justify the contributors' sense of urgency; in 2022 alone, 48 state legislatures considered proposals for "anti-LGBTQ schooling or curriculum restrictions," and, by the end of the year, 15 states had passed 19 of those bills. Many of the chapters have a journalistic bent, documenting contributors' personal experiences of their institutions being targeted by conservative donors and activists trying to get education bans enacted—among them Charles Koch and Christopher Rufo—as well as the educators' attempts to fight back through teachers unions and faculty senates. Primarily intended to be read by educators "as a source of information and perhaps inspiration," the anthology, despite the occasional jargon-filled passage, paints a kaleidoscopic picture of a nationwide struggle playing out between powerful institutions—right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation squaring off against the ACLU and PEN America. It's a detailed dissection of an urgent political issue.
