Free Republic

On the Web site of an unofficial alumni organization at the University of California, Los Angeles, there are profiles "exposing" the university's "most radical professors" who "actively proselytize their extreme views in the classroom." These professors are described as "brainless" and are berated for never having left the "fantasy world of college." [snip] There are other disturbing examples today and throughout history. In Colorado and Indiana, as a result of widely publicized student allegations of left-wing bias in the classroom, several professors have received hate mail and at least one received a death threat. The number of organizations across America...

David Graeber pulled a green object shaped like a Champagne cork out of his pocket. "Do you know what this is?" he asked recently. "It's a plastic bullet." The bullet, he said, was fired by the police in Quebec City during a protest against globalization in 2001, grazing his head. Battles with the police are a fact of life for Dr. Graeber, an associate professor of anthropology at Yale and a self-proclaimed anarchist. It was his battle with Yale that surprised him. The university notified him in the spring of 2005 that it would not renew his contract next year....

NEW HAVEN -- By all accounts, Yale anthropology professor David Graeber is one of the brightest minds in his field. His books are taught worldwide and the London School of Economics recently asked him to give its annual Malinowski lecture, an offer reserved for the world's most promising young anthropologists. And he's about to be unemployed. Graeber is an anarchist whose counterculture writings are nearly as popular as his academic work. He carries an Industrial Workers of the World union card and has been arrested during anti-globalization protests. So when Yale recently told Graeber not to return next year, it...

By all accounts, Yale anthropology professor David Graeber is one of the brightest minds in his field. His books are taught worldwide, and the London School of Economics recently asked him to give a lecture reserved for the most promising young anthropologists. But he's about to be unemployed. Yale's anthropology department recently voted behind closed doors not to renew Graeber's contract. University officials won't give the reasons, but Graeber's supporters point to politics. Graeber is an anarchist whose counterculture writings are nearly as popular as his academic work. He carries an Industrial Workers of the World union card and has...