The title of Patricia Cohen’s recent article in the NYT, “The 60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire,” was a little misleading. Indeed, those of us who were in graduate school during some of the most fiercely fought battles (for me, late 1980s through mid 1990s) understand that the culture wars were invariably the result not of 60s radicals looking to have their day in the academy, but of their ideological progeny: those who were in college in the 70s and 80s and who sought to emulate their brothers and sisters who peopled the barricades a decade or so before.
In other words, the young professors in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s confused what they were doing in the classroom with real politics. Of course, they had notable successes, especially when it came to opening up the canon. On the other hand, the culture wars helped give us Ronald Reagan and Bush I and II.
Cohen writes that the young profs of today are far more politically moderate than their predecessors of a generation or so ago. I would amend her analysis to say, simply, that today’s younger profs (late 20s through early 40s, perhaps) are more politically moderate because they are more practical in their understanding of what can be done in the academy in terms of social change. They simply do not buy the idea that the university seminar room is where the rubber meets the road.
In my day as a graduate student, I could not help but wonder how the linguistic and ideological contortions that passed for criticism and theory had any relevance to the homeless guy down the street. Even though they purported to be just what that guy needed.
