The Cold War and Academic Governance

The Lattimore Case at Johns Hopkins

By Lionel S. Lewis

Subjects: Higher Education
Series: SUNY series, Frontiers in Education
Paperback : 9780791414941, 318 pages, August 1993
Hardcover : 9780791414934, 318 pages, August 1993

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Table of contents

Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Lattimore's Views and the Question of His Loyalty

2. Pursuit by the Moral Entrepreneurs

3. The Outcry for Sanctions

4. The Response from Johns Hopkins

5. Inaction, Reaction, and Action

6. Restoration and Leave-Taking

7. Implications: On University Governance

Appendix A: Inquiry into Lattimore's Loyalty: Chronology of Main Events, 1950-55

Appendix B: Owen Lattimore's Comments on Senator McCarthy before the Tydings Committee

Appendix C: Testimony of General Barmine, Head of the Russian Department of the Voice of America and a Former Officer in the Russian Army

Appendix D: Testimony of Harvey M. Matusow, Staff Member of the Ohio Un-American Activities Commission, and Former Communist Party Member

Appendix E: Senator McCarthy's Principal Evidence against Lattimore

Appendix F: TIME, 1950: Investigations: "A Fool or a Knave"

Appendix G: TIME, 1952: Investigations: "Absent-Minded Professor?"

Appendix H: Examples of Letters Critical of Lattimore

Appendix I: Examples Showing How News of the Korean War Affected Content of Letters

Appendix J: Excerpt from a Speech by Senator Pat McCarran Tying Owen Lattimore to the Communist Conspiracy

Appendix K: Digest of the Minutes of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees Executive Committee, the Johns Hopkins University, 1952-55

Notes

Index

Description

This book examines the harassment of the Johns Hopkins University sinologist Owen Lattimore during the height of the Cold War on campus. It moves from detailing the specifics of Lattimore's case to a discussion of the broader themes of academic governance that the case exposed. With his meticulous dissection of this major event in United States academic history, Lewis shows us much about the workings of academic governance.

Lionel S. Lewis is Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Higher Education at State University of New York, Buffalo.

Reviews

"This account of the Lattimore case is the first detailed treatment of successful resistance from the academy to a McCarthy-era assault. Lattimore's is arguably the most notorious of all these cases, in terms of the importance of the target and of the political passions aroused. " — Jordan E. Kurland, American Association of University Professors

"Lewis's work adds a new dimension to the study of academic freedom. The popular response to academic freedom issues, to my knowledge, has not been chronicled anywhere. Nor does any author have such good data on trustee behavior as does Lewis. This is a major contribution. " — Sheila Slaughter, University of Arizona

"The book provides a comprehensive and collective memory about the campus and its various connections with the Cold War period. It is a good reminder and documentation of an important period that a newer generation of academic administrators and faculty have little knowledge about. The research, including secondary and archival sources, is complete and convincing. The case study is important for our thinking about academic freedom both inside and outside the American university. " — John R. Thelin, The College of William and Mary