THE CAMPUS WAR

A SYMPATHETIC LOOK AT THE UNIVERSITY IN AGONY

JOHN R. SEARLE

1971


for Thomas and Mark


The devotional language of the Jacobins, their frequent access of collective emotion, their conviction of righteousness, their assurance that their opponents are sinners, direct agents of the devil, their intolerance, their desire for martyrdom, their total want of humor -- all these are unmistakable signs of the theological temperament.

Crane Brinton


What happened during all the enlightenment of recent times to the French Revolution may happen again. Looked at closely, it was a gruesome farce, and unnecessary; but from afar the noble and enthusiastic spectators of all Europe so passionately read their own outrage and enthusiasm into it that the text disappeared beneath the interpretation! So a noble line of our descendants might misunderstand us as we become the past, and thus make our sight endurable after all. Or rather, hasn't this already happened? Were we not ourselves this noble line of descendants? And is it not all over -- now that we comprehend it?

Friedrich Nietzsche


Contents

PREFACE

  1. THE ANATOMY OF STUDENT REVOLTS
  2. THE STUDENTS
  3. THE ADMINISTRATION
  4. THE FACULTY
  5. THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF STUDENT UNREST
  6. ACADEMIC FREEDOM
  7. THE PROSPECTS FOR THE UNIVERSITY