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Store: An Independent Institute Book
THE DIVERSITY MYTH
Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus
By
David O. Sacks, Peter A. Thiel
Foreword by
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
In the name of “diversity,” many leading academic and cultural institutions are working to silence dissent and stifle intellectual life. This powerful book exposes the real impact of “multiculturalism” on the institution most closely identified with the “politically correct” decline of higher education—Stanford University. Authored by two Stanford graduates, this book is a compelling, if sometimes depressing, insider’s tour of a world of speech codes, “dumbed-down” admissions standards and curricula, campus witch hunts, and anti-Western zealotry that masquerades as legitimate scholarly inquiry.
Sacks and Thiel use numerous primary sources—the Stanford Daily, class readings, official university publications—to reveal a pattern of politicized classes, housing, budget priorities, and more. They trace the connections between such disparate trends as political correctness, the gender wars, Generation X nihilism, and “culture wars,” showing how these have played a role in shaping “multiculturalism” at institutions like Stanford.
Sacks and Thiel convincingly show that “multiculturalism” is not about learning more; it is actually about learning less. They end their comprehensive study by detailing the changes necessary to reverse the tragic disintegration of American universities and restore true academic excellence.
Detailed Summary |
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Table of Contents
- Introduction: Christopher Columbus, The First Multiculturalist
- Chapter 1: The West Rejected
- Chapter 2: Multiculturalism—A New Word For A New World
- Chapter 3: Educating Generation X
- Chapter 4: The Engineering Of Souls
- Chapter 5: Stages Of Oppression
- Chapter 6: “Welcome to Salem”
- Chapter 7: The Egalitarian Elite
- Chapter 8: Caliban’s Kingdom
Praise for The Diversity Myth “This engaging saga of Stanford’s experiment in multiculturalism compellingly draws readers into the nightmare world of social engineering in practice. The authors convincingly argue that the campaign to impose ‘multiculturalism’ amounts to nothing less than a war on Western Civilization and, beyond it, a war on the very idea of civilization. Even those who do not agree with all of the author’s views, will find The Diversity Myth a frightening and thought-provoking account—and, above all, a timely reminder that the educational collapse of our most exclusive universities must be of deep concern to us all.”
—ELIZABETH FOX-GENOVESE, Elénore Raoul Professor of Humanities, Emory University
“The story of The Diversity Myth is based at Stanford, but this book is larger than that. As a Harvard graduate, I recognize my own school in these pages, and quite likely you will too. By detailing the current corruption of our academic ideals with a larger audience, David Sacks and Peter Thiel have hastened the much-needed and long-awaited restoration of higher education.”
—CHRISTOPHER COX, former United States Congressman
“Years ago, William Buckley, a very young Yale graduate, authored the seminal critique of higher education in America, God and Man at Yale. Sacks and Thiel, very young Stanford graduates, have now written the sequel. The Diversity Myth confirms the continuing decline of intellectual integrity in our finest colleges and universities and lays bare what must be corrected if higher education is ever to achieve the great potential of which it is capable.”
—MARTIN ANDERSON, Author, Imposters in the Temple: The Decline of the American University
“The Diversity Myth is a devastating indictment of how a great university came close to being destroyed. Well-written and concise, the book lays out the difference between those seeking to understand other cultures and those seeking to eviscerate our own. It is must reading for anyone who values the discourse of civility over the politics of intellectual intolerance and zealotry.”
—PHILIP MERRILL, President and Publisher, Washingtonian
“A great read and an important story, this book will not just cause alarm about our educational institutions. It will inspire renewal.”
—WILLIAM KRISTOL, Editor and Publisher, The Weekly Standard
“There is no higher duty for intellectuals than to denounce incipient totalitarianism wherever they observe it. Some of its symptoms are present at Stanford. In The Diversity Myth, two recent Stanford graduates document the situation there with a thoroughness and depth of analysis that should help stiffen the spine of university administrators.”
—RENÉ GIRARD, Professor of Comparative Literature, Stanford University
“If you want to find out what went wrong at Stanford University, read The Diversity Myth. There’s hardly a better source than this book for learning why multiculturalism on campus cannot work.”
—LINDA CHAVEZ, former Director, U. S. Commission on Civil Rights
“The Diversity Myth reveals the intellectual corruption that captured one of our nation’s premier universities. But the fact that these authors demonstrated the wisdom and the will to expose such conditions gives hope for at least some of its graduates.”
—EDWIN W. MEESE, III, former United States Attorney General
“The Diversity Myth charges that ‘politicized’ classes and student activities have led to an ironic intolerance on campus—intolerance of all things Western.”
—NEWSWEEK
“I was blessed to have attended Stanford during a political calm between the violence of 1969-71 and the more subtle intimidation discussed in The Diversity Myth. Even then, Stanford’s political culture was reflexively left, and dissenters could expect rhetorical flailings. But, there were no more taboos on expression than existed in the society beyond. Somehow that changed, and with it the character of the institution. This book explains why.”
—TIM W. FERGUSON, Assistant Managing Editor, Forbes
“People who affect to believe that political correctness is merely a phantom of the conservative imagination are fond of saying that that same few isolated incidents are endlessly recycled. . . . Sacks and Thiel present a series of such incidents, less widely reported than the uproar over Stanford’s curriculum but more groubling because they show how far those in charge of universities are willing to go to intrude on student’s privacy and their freedom of conscience.”
—LINDA SEEBACH, Editorial Page Editor, Rocky Mountain News
“In a just-released, hard-hitting book, The Diversity Myth, co-authors and Stanford Alumni David sacks and Peter Thiel expose the radicalization in curriculum and student activities at Stanford University in recent years. Beyond the pervasive politicization of the curriculum, Sacks and Thiel also detail what they say has been a sharp degradation of academic standards at Stanford.”
—HUMAN EVENTS
“Although this book is by no means the first effort to isolate and analyze the multiculturalist virus infecting American higher education, it may well be the best. . . . The Diversity Myth is both an alarming account of a great institution’s flirtation with self-destruction and a withering exposé of academic arrogance and folly.”
—CRISIS About the Authors Both graduates of Stanford University and Research Fellows at The Independent Institute, David O. Sacks is former Vice President of Product Strategy and Peter A. Thiel is former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at PayPal, Inc.
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