The debate over P. C. at America's universities is the most important discussion in American education today and has grown into a major national controversy raging on the covers of our top magazines and news shows. This provocative anthology gives voice to the top thinkers of our time, liberal and conservative, as they tackle the question. From the multicultural perspective of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who argues passionately for more diversity, to the erudition of Irving Howe, who stresses the profound value of the literary canon, this exciting collection is required reading for thinking Americans . . . and for everyone concerned with the future of higher education and the shaping of young minds. Contents include:The Big Chill? Interview with Dinesh D’Souza by Robert MacNeil On Differences: Modern Language Association Presidential Address 1990 by Catharine R. Stimpson The Periphery v. the Center: The MLA in Chicago by Roger Kimball The Storm over the University by John Searle Public Imaged Limited: Political Correctness and the Media’s Big Lie by Michael Berubé The Value of the Canon by Irving Howe The Politics of Knowledge by Edward W. Said Whose Canon Is It, Anyway? by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Why Do We Read? by Katha Pollitt ’Speech Codes’ on the Campus and Problems of Free Speech by Nat Hentoff Freedom of Hate Speech by Richard Perry and Patricia Williams There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech and It’s a Good Thing, Too by Stanley Fish The Statement of the Black Faculty Caucus by Ted Gordon and Wahneema Lubiano Radical English by George F. Will Critics of Attempts to Democratize the Curriculum Are Waging a Campaign to Misrepresent the Work of Responsible Professors by Paula Rothenberg Multiculturalism: E Pluribus Plures by Diane Ravitch Multiculturalism: An Exchange by Molefi Kete Asante The Prospect Before Us by Hilton Kramer P. C. Rider by Enrique Fernández Diverse New World by Cornel West The Challenge for the Left by Barbara Ehrenreich | Debating P. C by Paul Berman, Paperback | Indigo Chapters