Campus Misinformation

"This book is essential reading not only on how to debunk misinformation about academia and college life but also on how and why the college campus became a target of partisan propaganda in the first place. Bradford Vivian does the hard work of sifting through reams of misinformation while maintaining a focus on the empirical, providing context that will change your mind about the latest campus controversy."" * Aaron R. Hanlon, Associate Professor of English; Chair, Science, Technology, and Society Department; Director, Public Voices Initiative, Colby College * Vivian's Campus Misinformation is a timely and useful book that is a thoughtful and elegant response to the fabricated moral panic about supposed suppression of 'free speech' on college campuses. Vivian does an elegant job of showing that this moral panic uses a language of tolerance, non-partisanship, and fairness, when it's actually highly partisan, profitable, and consciously misleading. The book is beautifully written * cogent, clear, funny, smart. While critical of the demagoguery on the issue, Vivian is fair to his opposition, accurately representing their arguments, and discussing the relevant incidents in detail."" Patricia Roberts-Miller, Independent Scholar and Professor Emeritus, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, University of Texas at Austin * As someone who is fortunate to teach college students, I have long been concerned about the wide disconnect between a pervasive media narrative about speech and expression on campuses and the actual state of higher education. Vivian has explored this disconnect with care, showing that reports of a 'campus free speech crisis' traffic in a form of misinformation. Those of us who value freedom of expression should find his defense of student organizing and counter speech to be a welcome addition to discussions of expressive freedom on campus."" * Lara Schwartz, Director, American University Project on Civil Discourse, and coauthor of How to College: What to Know Before You Go (And When You're There) * As the ginned up education panic intensifies across the nation, Bradford Vivian counters the propaganda with a calm and rational assessment of actually existing higher education practices. Vivian shows how the common tropes of the education panic do not accurately reflect the reality at American colleges and universities and how the controversies over free speech, diversity, and critical race theory are part of an authoritarian power grab to control higher education."" * Jennifer Mercieca, Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, and author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump *"