cover image Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?

Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?

Neil Gross. Harvard Univ., $35 (396p) ISBN 978-0-674-05909-2

In this persuasive study, University of British Columbia sociologist Gross tackles the politically hot topic of whether there is a liberal bias in the professoriate of American universities. His findings will comes as a surprise to few: “[c]onservatives often portray the academy as a bastion of liberalism” and “they are essentially correct.” For the past two centuries, the trend in higher education has been toward a more secular, liberal-oriented learning environment, and the predominance of liberal arts and humanities curricula predisposes to a liberal-oriented professoriate. Not surprisingly, certain academic disciplines conform to type more than others: “the social sciences and humanities contain the largest number of radicals; the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences the largest number of progressives; and applied fields like business and engineering more conservatives.” In his most novel analysis, Gross attributes the perpetuation of a liberal professoriate to the fact that “liberal college students are apt to see becoming a professor as something that fits with their political identity.” The book builds significantly on the work of predecessors, blending statistical analyses with studies of professors whose political orientations defy simple “liberal” or “conservative” categorization. Though the book sometimes bogs the reader down with minutiae, it offers a thoughtful riposte to ad hominem attacks on contemporary universities as hotbeds of radicalism. (Apr.)