Historian and former university president Sheldon Hackney recounts how he became an unwitting combatant in the Culture Wars when his nomination to become President Bill Clinton’s chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities came under fire from right-wing conservatives. Hackney meticulously describes the background of ideological maneuvering that was behind not only the attacks on him but also the fierce campaign to bring down Clinton. He says, “I believe my story illustrates how the Culture War and the current media environment combine to polarize discussion until the public has no chance to understand complex issues. Not only are moderates trampled underfoot, but the great gray areas where life is actually lived, the areas of ambiguity and tradeoffs between competing values, are rendered toxic to human habitation. This is not healthy for a democracy.”
Оглавление
Sheldon Hackney. The Politics of Presidential Appointment
Also by Sheldon Hackney
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
1. The Crackpot Prez
2. The Nightmare Begins
3. Buffaloed At Penn
4. It’s Not About Me
5. At Last I Speak
6. The Grilling
7. Floor Fight
Epilogue
Appendix 1. Higher Education as a Medium for Culture
Appendix 2. Education and the American Identity
Appendix 3. Questions for the Record by Senator Kassebaum for Sheldon Hackney, Nominee for Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Notes
Index
About the Author
Отрывок из книги
The Politics of Presidential Appointment
A Memoir of the Culture War
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Nor will I plod through the politics of winning the approval of the faculty for a new program in Afro-American (now African American) Studies. Approval was not a foregone conclusion, even with the support of President Goheen and Provost William Bowen. Suffice it to say that we succeeded. We cobbled together a sufficient number of related courses already on the books which, with the addition of a couple of new courses, presented a respectable beginning of an effort to include the experience of African Americans throughout the humanities and social sciences at Princeton.
By the time the faculty brought the program into legal existence, it was clear that we did not have adequate faculty to lead the program or to sustain real scholarly inquiry over a long period of time. I served as the acting director of the program through its first year of existence while we recruited a permanent director.
