The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, the Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies

From public intellectual and professor Robert Boyers, 'a powerfully persuasive, insightful, and provocative prose that mixes erudition and first-hand reportage' (Joyce Carol Oates) addressing recent developments in American culture and arguing for the tolerance of difference that is at the heart of the liberal tradition.Written from the perspective of a liberal intellectual who has spent a lifetime as a writer, editor, and college professor, The Tyranny of Virtue is a 'courageous, unsparing, and nuanced to a rare degree' (Mary Gaitskill) insider's look at shifts in American culture--most especially in the American academy--that so many people find alarming. Part memoir and part polemic, Boyers's collection of essays laments the erosion of standard liberal values, and covers such subjects as tolerance, identity, privilege, appropriation, diversity, and ableism that have turned academic life into a minefield. Why, Robert Boyers asks, are a great many liberals, people who should know