Academic Freedom: A Bibliography
Academic freedom is a subject with many facets: academic freedom of public and private school teachers, of university professors, of universities themselves, and of students. In this bibliography, I have concentrated on articles about academic freedom at a post-secondary level. There are some articles concerning the academic freedom of universities, but most deal with professors. Because this issue celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, I have examined publications only from 1940 to the present. The books included are those that focus mainly on academic freedom, rather than those with only a small section on that topic. The articles deal with the legal aspects of academic freedom, and almost all are from legal periodicals.' All materials are in English and concern academic freedom issues in the United States. Within the criteria stated above, I have tried to be comprehensive in my search for materials. I have searched both through the legal journal indexes and through the footnotes of the articles themselves. Omitted entirely are articles about specific challenges to academic freedom reported on in the journal of the American Association of University Professors, at different times called Academe and the AA UP Bulletin. The association has devoted much space to particular academic freedom cases, and anyone interested in these reports need only look at individual issues of the journal.
Intramural Musings on Academic Freedom: A Reply to Professor Finkin
On my way to last October's Symposium on Academic Freedom, I came across a crew of painters busily repainting the walls outside of the dean's office. These painters, employees of The University of Texas, were rather erudite types and, while rolling away at the walls and rearranging their tarpaulins, they were discussing their concerns and dissatisfactions with their plight and the direction of the university. I believe their story is relevant to the questions raised by Professor Finkin' about the scope of academic freedom. One painter, a rather crusty fellow well along in years, remarked that, due to the tremendous workload, the Division of Physical Plant gave painters no opportunity for personal development. Things were so rushed that he did not have the time to do a professionally satisfying job-to paint with the perspective of an artist. He lamented that he felt like a hireling or servant, and he was angered by his own cowardice in the face of his "corruption by the institution." These remarks provoked a response from a second painter, a young woman who only recently had taken up painting for a living. She complained that she had never received any guidance on how well she painted, and she questioned whether there were intelligible standards for evaluating her work. She tended to emphasize "brush work" over rollers, but she worried that her style might stifle advancement opportunities. A third painter piped in that his biggest complaint was the decline in hiring standards and the failure to recruit top-notch painters to the university. Too many recent recruits were just working for the money and had no sense of pride in their work. They were careless with the tarpaulins and were unconcerned if drops of paint fell on the furniture. They were pitiful when it came to safety. He thought it just a matter of time until a bucket of paint, precariously hanging from a ladder, fell on some unsuspecting professor.
The Coming of Industrial Order: Town and Factory Life in Rural Massachusetts, 1810–1860. By Jonathan Prude. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Pp. xvii, 364. $34.50
intended to be a "brief, interpretative volume," a "distillation" and "synthesis" of recent scholarship on black slavery in the United States. As such, its succeeds to a high degree, making it a most useful introduction to the current state of knowledge. Not everyone will agree with all of his interpretations, or each of his judgments on the state of various debates, but the scope and intelligence of the material presented serve as a convenient introduction to the current knowledge of many aspects of slavery and the lives of slaves. Boles draws almost exclusively upon the writings of others, and does so in a way that may sometimes be confusing to general readers. Although there is an informative 26page bibliographic essay, there are no footnotes and few mentions of specific authors in the text. Although those working in the area can no doubt locate the specific sources of many of the arguments Boles presents (and indeed may find it interesting to see how Boles "grades" various scholars), this does have limitations for students who may want to trace these points themselves or see the evidence on which Boles chooses among scholars (or, at times, suspends judgment). The coverage is broad. While Boles's own interests are most directly slave (and free black) culture and religion, he covers many other issues, with particular attention to the slave economy, demography, and material and psychological treatment. The temporal coverage runs from the arrival of the first blacks to the immediate post-Civil War years, tracing the initial responses of the exslaves to emancipation. The basic interpretation of slavery Boles presents is as "a constant process of accommodation and mutual adjustment, with masters always having the upper hand, but with slaves controlling a larger fraction of their lives than the system would logically seem to allow," a system "more open, more flexible than is often recognized," which "never became so rigid, the control so complete, as to snuff out human creativity and the ingenuity of slaves." Within this broad perspective there is, of course, ample room for disagreement on many specific issues, but it should be noted how the consensus view of slavery has altered over the past several decades. In a field where nuance and internal consistency are so critical, however, it is probably best not to attempt to briefly summarize Boles's views on the many issues discussed. Black Southerners succeeds in its intentions as a brief, one-volume summary interpretation of American slavery. It is an intelligent and thoughtful presentation based on a wide reading of recent scholarship, and it will be useful to all students of American history interested in the current state of slave studies in all aspects.