This section of DiscoverTheNetworks examines the highly politicized atmosphere that has developed in recent decades at American institutions of higher learning; the leftist campus and professional associations that have been established there; and the key players -- professors, administrators, and organizational leaders -- who have shaped the ideological agendas of those institutions and associations. The political indoctrination that occurs in primary and secondary education is discussed as well.

It is generally accepted that the politicization of American academia formally began in 1964 when student radicals involved in the University of California’s Free Speech Movement occupied the UC Berkeley administration building (800 were arrested) in the first “takeover” of a campus building on U.S. soil. But after a tumultuous decade in which they failed in their bid to ignite a socialist revolution, many of these radicals returned to school, earned graduate degrees, secured professorial positions, and set about giving the university an identity that was stridently political and at odds with much of American society. These “tenured radicals,” as writer Roger Kimball calls them, have made the contemporary university an institutional outpost of leftist thought by reshaping entire disciplines, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, and by using control of the hiring process to assemble faculties whose views are uniformly Left.

This section of the database also examines a number of key issues related to primary and secondary education.

The RESOURCES column located on the right side of this page contains links to articles, essays, books, and videos that explore such topics as:

• the vastly disproportionate presence of leftist professors on university campuses across the United States;
• examples of the political and ideological indoctrination that takes place in university classrooms nationwide;
• the vital need for academic freedom, where professors and students alike are permitted to think for themselves and to express their views openly in an atmosphere that encourages the exchange of ideas rather than forced conformity;
• the prevalence of left-wing, anti-American bias in the teaching of American History;
• African American Studies (a.k.a. Black Studies), an increasingly popular discipline rooted in the premise that black people are victimized incessantly by a culture that is racist to its core;
• Whiteness Studies, a discipline which advances the notion that white people historically have sought to oppress nonwhites in the U.S. and elsewhere;
• Women's Studies (a.k.a. Feminist Studies), which holds that women, by and large, are the oppressed victims of Western culture's inequities -- which are tied most closely to capitalism;
• Peace Studies, which views the United States and capitalism as the predominant sources of international strife;
• Social Work education programs, which are dominated by leftists who have crafted curricula designed to indoctrinate their students ideologically and politically;
• the left's iron-clad control of the field of sociology;
• university publishing houses, which invariably serve as platforms for the dissemination of far-left dogma;
• the prevalence of anti-Semitism among university professors in the United States;
• Jewish professors in the U.S. who exploit their birthright in an effort to advance the campaign of delegitimizing and demonizing Israel;
• campus organizations, guest speakers, and campus events that promote anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and pro-jihad themes at American colleges and universities;
• university professors in Israel who who reframe Arab aggression and terror as self-defense, and Israeli self-defense as aggression and terror;
• why leftists are invited to speak at commencement exercises far more frequently than conservatives;
• how the public education system -- particularly as a result of the unsavory practices of the teachers' unions -- has failed black and Hispanic students in elementary school and high school;
• the incompetence and failure of Democrat-controlled public school systems in numerous U.S. cities;
• how students in grades K-12 are indoctrinated in anti-Israel propaganda;
• how students in grades K-12 are indoctrinated in the tenets of “social justice,” anti-Americanism, and leftism;
• the long history of generalized indoctrination in the K-12 classroom;
• the ideological indoctrination that takes place at America's teacher-training colleges;
• issues related to disciplinary measures used by classroom teachers and school administrators; and
• how religious extremists in Saudi Arabia use their wealth to influence what America’s K-12 schoolchildren learn about Islam and the Middle East.