Last post on Churchill, I hope!

For an extensive set of resources on the Churchill affair, check this site.

The whole affair has gone far beyond any reasonable limit. It seems to have crystalized a lot of resentments against the academic left, and in truth they deserve the animosities that are directed at them. At the same time, the broadly-based populist assault on academic freedom poses real dangers to intellectual inquiry. This was a predictable consequence of the academy's infatuation in recent decades with the "public intellectual" who wielded the authority of his or her academic rank as a political weapon. Much of what ensued was irresponsible BS that invited powers outside the academy to begin to scrutinize its internal practices and standards, many of which are indefensible. I see a bad moon rising, but we brought it on ourselves.