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Article: Academic freedom in America today: a Marxist view.
- Article from:
- Monthly Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 1984
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1984 Monthly Review Foundation, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Three brief case studies: in 1915, Scott Nearing, a socialist professor of economics, was fired from the University of Pennsylvia for publicly opposing the use of child labor in coal mines. With an influential mine owner on the Board of Trustees, the president of the university decided he had to let Nearing go. As far as I can discover, he is the first professor fired from an American university for his radical beliefs and activities.
Some have argued that this honor belongs to Edward Bemis, who was dismissed from the University of Chicago in 1894. A major charge in this case was that Bemis had the poor judgment to hold discussions with union leaders during ...