Article: UO professor labeled ‘dangerous’

David Horowitz’s book, ‘The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America,’ includes sociology professor John Foster

By Ryan Knutson
News Reporter
March 06, 2006

A University professor has been labeled one of the 101 “most dangerous academics in America” by conservative commentator and author of three New York Times bestsellers David Horowitz, who released a book in February that profiles “dangerous” academics across the county.

Seven other Pacific-10 Conference professors are also listed in the alphabetically organized book, “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America,” which includes a description of Horowitz’s rationale for including each academic.

Horowitz argues that a “legion” of radical academics “spew violent anti-Americanism, preach anti-Semitism, and cheer on the killing of American soldiers and civilians — all the while collecting tax dollars and tuition fees to indoctrinate our children,” according to the book’s jacket.

The one University professor listed, sociology professor John Foster, declined to comment on Horowitz’s book, which publicizes Foster’s position as editor of the Marxist magazine, “Monthly Review,” as well as Foster’s position considering “the collapse of the Soviet empire a setback for human progress.”

“Monthly Review” describes Foster as “a major environmental sociologist.” Foster has written several anti-capitalism books, including one he co-edited with another professor listed in Horowitz’s book, University of Illinois communications professor Robert McChesney, entitled “Pox Americana: Exposing the American Empire.”

The Sociology Department’s Web site lists Foster’s research interests as “devoted to critical inquiries into theory and history, primarily on the economic, political and ecological contradictions of capitalism and imperialism, but also encompassing the wider realm of social theory as a whole.”

Foster’s “teaching encourages in-depth, critical exploration of history and ideology, equipping students to learn to learn on their own,” according to the Web site.

Sociology Department head Bob O’Brien said he’s not concerned about the book or Foster’s views.

“I’ve been department head for maybe 10 or 12 years. For the time that John’s been here I don’t believe I’ve ever had one student come complain to me about his views in class,” he said.

O’Brien said as long as Foster is allowing students to express their views in an open debate, there is no problem.

“Do they make sure that students are welcome to disagree? If somebody off campus doesn’t like the views of someone on campus, I’ll certainly stand by the professor on campus,” he said.

According to Horowitz’s book, “left-wing radicals from the 1960s have hung around academia and hired people like themselves. But if you thought they were all harmless, antiquated hippies, you’d be wrong.”

Horowitz himself was a leader of the New Left movement in the 1960s, a radical left-wing group that opposed prevailing authority that it termed “The Establishment.”

The author, whose parents were two lifelong Communists, withdrew from politics in the 1970s, according to Horowitz’s biography on Townhall.com, a news and opinions Web site that has republished his columns.

He rethought his political opinions in the 1980s, adopting a more conservative perspective. Horowitz now authors conservative books and serves as editor of the conservative Web site FrontPageMagazine.com.

Horowitz has also been instrumental in introducing federal legislation called “The Academic Bill of Rights,” which stresses intellectual diversity on college campuses, yet is being criticized for limiting free speech by civil liberty groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Association of University Professors.

Horowitz spoke at the University in 2003, condemning the institution for what he said was its effort to indoctrinate students with a “leftist ideology.” He also accused faculty of employing a “ruthless blacklist” that stifles conservative faculty and viewpoints.

Horowitz has made these statements the centerpiece of his book.

“All of (the professors) appear to believe that an institution of higher learning is an extension of the political arena, and that scholarly standards can be sacrificed for political ends; others are frank apologists for terrorist agendas, and still others are classroom bigots,” Horowitz wrote in the book’s introduction.

A coalition of student, faculty and civil liberty groups calling itself the Free Exchange On Campus is taking a stand against the proposed legislation and Horowitz’s book, calling the book a “blacklist” and saying the book is part of a movement to limit the speech of American academics.

“I think it definitely sparks a flame,” said Liz Karas, campus organizer for OSPIRG, a group involved with Free Exchange On Campus. “It’s trying to put fear into professors. We think what Horowitz is trying to do is silence teachers, and we don’t agree with it.”

Horowitz also lists Derrick Bell, a former University School of Law dean who served from 1980-85. Bell is now a New York University professor, and Horowitz identifies him as dangerous for being a pioneer of the “Critical Race Theory, an academic tradition in which race plays the same role as class in the Marxist paradigm,” and because Bell has built his academic career around the claim that “whites and white institutions are irremediably racist.”

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Contact the higher education reporter at rknutson@dailyemerald.com

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© 2006 Oregon Daily Emerald