“Swarthmorofascism”

Inside Higher Ed:

Jonah Goldberg’s new book is being promoted with a little (and a little inaccurate) college bashing. The book jacket for Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, forthcoming in January from Doubleday, proclaims: “The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.” Leaving aside the rather large issue of the charge that Brown and Swarthmore educate for fascism, Kieran Healy — blogging at Crooked Timber — points out a factual problem: Swarthmore doesn’t award education degrees. Healy, a sociologist at the University of Arizona, and commenters on the blog have a good time exploring “Swarthmorofascism.” A spokeswoman for the college confirmed that Healy is correct and Goldberg is not, and said she didn’t know why Goldberg made Swarthmore a target.

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