Maggie's Farm

I teach History and Government (can't bring myself to call it "political science") at a small, relatively conservative college in Texas. Haidt wasn't talking to my field, but he could well have been as it is increasingly dominated by liberals.

I read with great pleasure his bombshell at his conference when it happened. And I hope someone does something similar for my fields. It is difficult to find books for my teaching fields that aren't written from a leftiest point of view. I know the general answer is to write one myself from a centrist point of view.

But money talks. And teachers either individually or collectively adopt books for their campuses. So there is no incentive to put hundreds of hours of my labor into a work that will not only not sell, but won't be well received.

I might do it anyway, just to watch the libs scream in anger. Generally, they are FAR less tolerant of a conflicting view than right wingers are. Sure, I won't adopt your book if it is rhapsodizing about Che's humanitarian "reforms" but I won't seek to have you fired for writing it. Wouldn't it be nice if I could expect the same treatment if I said that Abe Lincoln was a war criminal for unlawfully invading the South when it excercised its right to secede?