History Lesson: A Race Odyssey

by Mary Lefkowitz and Mary R. Lefkowitz

Book Overview

From the author of Not Out of Africa comes a gripping first-person account of the tyranny of political correctness in academe In the early 1990s, Classics professor Mary Lefkowitz discovered that one... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030012659X
• ISBN13: 9780300126594
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Very Brave Woman

This absorbing, short book is the tale of a very brave woman. All those who care for the survival of humane values owe her a tremendous debt, for writing the book, and for having fought the difficult, courageous fight that it recounts. The author is a distinguished scholar of ancient Greece, and a professor emerita at Wellesley College. As part of her responsibilities at this elite institution, she was required, as were all faculty members, to scrutinize and to vote on the course descriptions of all the College's offerings. When she found that one of these courses taught racist myth as true history, she objected while many of her colleagues pretended not to notice. For her troubles she was vilified and denounced in the hate literature, one of her offenses being, according to those attacking her, that, basically, she was a Jew, one of those with hooked noses, part of an alleged "Jewish Onslaught." She was also sued for her temerity to speak out. This litigation was ultimately found by the courts to have no merit, but not without five years of legal harassment by her tormentors. Those pursuing the attack against her did so in the guise of alleged African-American, Afrocentric concerns. One of the heartening aspects of her story is that several of her African-American colleagues stood by her throughout her ordeal. It is also comforting to read that a number of well-established groups and institutions managed the courage to support her against an all too prevalent political correctness. The simplistic, mythic, hateful "Afrocentric" doctrine that Lefkowitz had to confront in Massachusetts is also the inspiring ideology of Trinity United Church of Chicago, where Senator Obama worshipped for twenty years. Others left this church when the doctrine became established there, but not Obama. Unlike Lefkowitz at Wellesley, Obama in Chicago avoided his eyes.

An interesting book

This is a very interesting book on how ideology can pervert the goals of a college education. My daughter was a student at Wellesley College during some of the time covered by the book, so I have independent verification of a number of the points covered. It is a cautionary tale that should be ever on the minds of college administrators and the general public.

The truth will set you free but first it will make you miserable

The story of Mary Lefkowitz and her experiences over the last decade and a half is very important not only in terms of the facts, but as a story of how the culture wars are fought. How a scholar of ancient history whose only concern was the teaching of facts, became a flash point in the race game is an object lesson in what happens when you ignore important principles in order to get along. The critical points in the book are early as she shows how in order to avoid confrontation people with authority choose to empower those who eschew fact, evidence, schollarship, procedure and decorum. The enablers, more than the hucksters, are the real villains of this book. Their cowardice should be a source of personal and professional disgrace as tachers and administrators. It is an excellent illustration of the cost of appeasement. Her writing seems rather naive at times; almost as if she doesn't realize why this is happening. In the end she decides that facts were being suborned for the sake of a desired result (empowerment and pride). She argues that a noble motive doesn't justify the use of untruth and myth. It demeans those who the users would hope to empower. Lefkowitz's essential innocence to actual motive is almost incredible to read, but is no more odd that the media's unwillingness to condemn a certain reverend's from Chicago incredible statements before a select group until he publicly made those same statements in front of a national audience. This is the book's one weakness. She doesn't realize that this is in effect a religion and its "preachers" goal is to empower not the follower but themselves for the sake of status, influence and financial reward. This can only be done if the rubes are kept angry and dependant. Her fact based argument was and is a threat to this. Thus she was attacked. In terms of readability this is as dry as one might expect from one whose main concern is literal fact. Lefkowitz is no Shelby Foote or Will Durant but she doesn't have to be, the story itself is compelling and topical enough not to require such an author. This fault aside this book is vital reading. It is important to reward truth and those who will stand up to it but its also a reminder to others that the price of silence will eventually have to be paid with interest.

Political Correctness Run Amok

Mary Lefkowitz is a classics scholar, who spent her career in ancient history and languages who is now retired. This is the story of what happens when a distinguished scholar like Lefkowitz questions the dogma of the phony scholars that hide under the mantle of political correctness. Some writers who are trying to build an "afrocentric" history, they should not be called scholars, have argued that the Greeks stole major ideas from the Egyptians especially by taking things from the library at Alexandria. They make the specific claim that Aristotle did that. Odd thing however is that Aristotle was dead before the library was built; that is according to a well researched historical record. But in the deconstructionist world of many universities, facts don't matter, interpretations do. Lefowitz details the perils of pointing that fact out. Her colleagues at Wellesley lacked the temerity to defend her. Lefkowitz did what a scholar should, she raised questions based on her research about these odd and fundamentally absurd notions. Unfortunately, she was not appreciated for her principled stance. Both her provost and her president, failed to defend her against the attacks from the other side who called her all sorts of names. Professor Lefkowitz, however, had the intellectual integrity to stick to her facts. This is a chronicle of the costs of maintaining scholarly standards. It is well written and quite interesting.

A must-read

This brilliant, cogently written book details the agonies classical scholar Mary Lefkowitz encountered when she endeavored, over a 5-year period, to stand up and fight for ancient history to be taught at Wellesley college from evidence, not from the wishful thinking of Afro-centrists. (Truth in reviewing: I am a Wellesley alumna, and I never dreamed such a surreal, bizarre conflict could take place at my school.) When Lefkowitz, a mild-mannered, well-spoken professor, pointed out that all the evidence pointed to Greek philosophy being invented by Greeks, not Egyptians, she was branded as a racist, and was the subject of anti-Semitic rants. Thank God Lefkowitz stuck to her guns, although clearly, the fight took a toll on her. This book is an absolute MUST READ for anyone interested in the messes academics now find themselves embroiled in. We ALL must fight for the TRUTH to be taught in classrooms; otherwise, we will have no common ground on which to engage in learned discourse. I unqualifiedly recommend this book, and have bought SIX copies to send to friends.