Academic Questions

Summer 2020

Volume 33 Issue 2

July 2, 2020

Francis Fukuyama’s God That Failed

Mytheos Holt

Fukuyama brazenly declared an “End of History” in the 1990s only to be trounced on September 11, 2001 when civilizations clashed.

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July 2, 2020

Judith Butler’s Deific Damage

David Clemens

We see Butler's influence every day, “when we struggle with prosecutable pronoun use, proliferating genders, social constructionist cul de sac, subjectivism, and with the abandonme......

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July 2, 2020

“Racist and Proud”: The Awful Legacy of Ta-Nehisi Coates

Mark Zunac

Ta-Nehisi Coates received a MacArthur Fellowship for “[i]nterpreting complex and challenging issues around race and racism through . . . nuanced historical analysis.” But nuance......

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July 2, 2020

The Metamorphosis of Carlos Eire

Mike Gonzalez

It took a devout Catholic and Cuban exile in the U.S. to explain the profound importance of the Protestant Reformation to the success of the West.

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July 2, 2020

In Humans, Sex is Binary and Immutable

Georgi K. Marinov

The idea that there are more than two sexes in human beings is a rejection of everything biological science has taught us. Unbelievably, this idea is coming directly from within the highest ranks of a......

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July 2, 2020

The 1619 Project: Believe Your Lying Eyes

Seth Forman

Make no mistake. Like the “Russian collusion” narrative that preceded it, The 1619 Project is driven by presidential politics.

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July 2, 2020

Howard Zinn: The Debunker Debunked

Lauren Weiner

In an attempt to rid our school systems of biased history books, Mary Grabar has confronted the “agitated-prof” Howard Zinn and his book A People’s History of the United States (1980......

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July 2, 2020

The Case for Carbon Dioxide

John Staddon and Peter Morcombe

The case that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are largely determined by human activity, contribute heavily to the earth’s warming, and that this warming portends catastrophic consequence......

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July 2, 2020

How to Respond to Obscure Writing

C.E. Larson

Academic writing can be a tough slog even when done well. But there is no reason for it to be as obscure as it often is, especially if the humanities adopted the refereeing conventions of mathematics.

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July 2, 2020

Down the Memory Hole: Evidence on Educational Testing

Richard P. Phelps

When the existence of previously conducted research makes funding harder to come by and favored policy goals less salient, it can disappear.

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July 2, 2020

Truth in American Academe

Michael Platt

Where in the world did the idea that students are qualified to evaluate their teachers, and that this would be good for their education, come from?

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July 2, 2020

Our Dangerous Obsession With STEM

Milton Ezrati

Teaching to navigate existing technology is not the same as cultivating the ingenuity required to attain new heights.

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July 2, 2020

Goat-Killing in the Humanities

Stanley K. Ridgley

"Business history is too important to be left to the historians," argues Ridgley in his review of "Nothing Succeeds like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools" by Steve......

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July 2, 2020

More Student Loans, Higher Tuition: Failing to Make the Connection

Richard K. Vedder

To Vedder’s disappointment, Caitlin Zaloom’s assessment of how families have coped with college related decision-making is riddled with errors.

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July 2, 2020

Is Our Crowd Mad?

Matthew Stewart

Though he does denounce progressive activist terms, Douglas Murray is more concerned with how the rest of society is forced to live with the results. 

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July 2, 2020

Defending Nationalism

Glynn Custred

Today, the debate in the West is between the nation state (nationalism) and the globalist vision of empire (transnational progressivism). In his book The Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful,......

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July 2, 2020

Embracing Success, Striving for Excellence

Anthony Hennen

Charter schools like Success Academy have brought school choice to low-income families. However, Robert Pondiscio is convinced that curriculum and instructional style cannot be the only......

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July 2, 2020

Should Science be More Scientific?

David Randall

There is a correlation between the increase of funding and fraud—financial incentives weaken the barriers of self-discipline and dedication in science. 

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July 2, 2020

Gertrude Himmelfarb (1922-2019)

Steve Balch

Gertrude Himmelfarb’s life may have ended, but her work will continue to inspire and awaken those in dogmatic slumber.

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July 2, 2020

The Games That Academics Play

David Lewis Schaefer

The emerging field of “game studies” is troubling not only because it promotes game playing over the difficult responsibilities of adulthood, but also because it disguises a radical p......

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