Commentary: The Freedom to Assign Controversial Books

August 30, 2023 1 min read

Keith E. Whittington
Academe Blog
 
Excerpt: It is not every day that a government minister writes to an American university president demanding that a book be immediately removed “from the curriculum of any of its courses” and that the institution “conduct a thorough review of the academic materials” used in its classes. But such is the demand that Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli has issued to President Christopher Eisgruber of Princeton University.

The professor might be wise or unwise in making such an assignment, and a professor might reasonably come in for public criticism for how they design or run their classes. But criticism must stop short of interference. If a work is relevant to the subject matter of the class, it does not matter whether others regard it as offensive or wrong.

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