God and Man at Yale

The Superstitions of Academic Freedom

By: William F. Buckley Jr.

Narrated by: Michael Edwards

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the book that launched William F. Buckley, Jr.'s career. As a young, recent Yale graduate, he took on Yale's professional and administrative staffs, citing their hypocritical diversion from the tenets on which the institution was built. Yale was founded on the belief that God exists, and thus that virtue and individualism represent immutable cornerstones of education. However, when Buckley wrote this scathing expose, the institution had made an about face: Yale was expounding collectivism and agnosticism. This classic work shows Buckley as he was and is: dauntless, venturesome, bold, and valiant.

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©1977 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)1988 by Blackstone Audio Inc.

Great book

I wasn’t sure what I thought about reading this book, but I am glad I gave it a shot. It had me hooked from the first paragraph all the way to the end. This book was very relatable to my experience at Bellevue University.

Presages Woke by 60+ years

Read how “woke” began in a timeless piece by Buckley and also how it still has not provided any value or developed growth since. But...bad ideas can travel around the world before the truth can put on its shoes.

Still Relevant Today

Buckley's message, that traditionalism has been steamrolled in academia by modernist relativism and its trappings is still as relevant today, and maybe more so, than it was when he wrote God and Man At Yale. There are flaws in the logic in places, for instance, when Buckley argues that the students, not the faculty, should have more say in the spirit of the curriculum, implying that students at Yale wanted religion over atheism and then just a few pages later complains that a professor who was "ardently atheist" taught classes that were "hugely attended." If a lot of the time and place particularities are strained through the overall message, that is, that somewhere along the line, traditionalism became taboo in American colleges, the book ages well. As a college humanities instructor with conservative leanings, I can certainly relate to much of what Buckley has written here, if, at times, I wince a bit at his line of reason.

Great context, horrible Narrator!

The narrator, Michael Edwards has totally destroyed the outstanding writing of William F. Buckley, Jr (WFB). Tony Pasqualini, who narrated “A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the twentieth Century” by WFB really captured the WFB style, cadence, and spirit of the written word. Excellent insight about institutions of higher learning presenting in their written words describing the goals and perspective as enlightened thought, freedom of thought, Belief in God, democratic principles, smaller government, and private economies, but hires professors whose perspectives are socialism; collectivism; anti-religion, nationalization of commerce, and bigger government which in turn is forming young impressionable students, instead of teaching them to think and formulate positions and perspectives in an independent manner. This book will offer prospective students and parents an insight what to look for when selecting an institute of higher learning. Another must read by WFB.

Content insightful; presentation lacking

This is an important book, but it was poorly recorded at times. Very much worth a listen.

Good book....narrated by a $10 answering machine

Outside of narration, it's a must read for parents with ideas on education. Basically Marxists have penetrated education and want to turn Americans kids into tools of self destruction. Damn, I guess this is why the Ivy League seems to be a factory of young socialists.

Overall all amusing to iterated how we have come and how we have to go. In this age of immanent CRT I would love to be a fly on

to ponder how we have journeyed so far from 1949.
It would be so interesting to be a fly on the wall in a conversation today between William and and his son Christopher, however we know this is not gonna happen but in the age of CRT we can see the handwriting on the wall if we live through the trauma. In the meantime at 78 all I can do is watch the beautiful Ms. Hoover on PBS and see how she handles it
I only wish I would’ve read this book 40 years ago not that it would have changed my mind but would have articulated my arguments further.
Cliché that people don’t get what they deserve but rather deserve what they get. I fear for that in the year 2021.

Well-read conservative classic, dated

God and Man at Yale was written in 1951 shortly after William F. Buckley, Jr. graduated the undergrad at Yale. The preface, which is long, was written by the same author 25 years later.

The book is an in-depth study of the tendency of the faculty, students, and administration of Yale to Keynesian / Fabian socialism and atheism / agnosticism either through active pursuit of those ends or through inaction in the face of those who would pursue them. At the time the book was written, Yale was known as a "conservative" powerhouse and a Christian school, and the administration played up this image to win the financial gifts of the alumni, who, according to the author, it kept blissfully unaware of the new trends at the University. The book calls for the University and alumni to abandon banner of "academic freedom," which it used to guard the left-leaning faculty, and to narrow its enforced orthodoxy to exclude all faculty not committed to Christianity, "individualism" (capitalism, free market economics, small government, etc.), and democracy.

The book is dated and something of a time capsule. Some arguments withstand the test of time. Others are interesting precisely because of what they reveal about the past. The days when Yale (or any other major university) was a private institution in more than name or a bastion of conservatism are beyond memory. Buckley was prescient in seeing where things were heading, in the de facto nationalization and secularization of higher education. Nevertheless, he hardly realized just how radical this transformation would be.

Probably the most dated part of the book is its emphasis on capitalism, individualism, and democracy—its appeals to the consumer choice of the wealthy benefactors of higher education. Looking back it is easy to see that these wished for remedies were in many ways the true cause of the ailment.

Prescient

Buckley saw the problem 70 years ago and now we are chest deep in it.

A mid 20th century indictment of our education system

Just listening to the brilliance and eloquence of William F Buckley Junior is a delightful, uplifting experience. In this case, the theme is a sad recording of the abandonment of traditional values and the promotion of collectivism/Socialism in our institutions of higher learning which is since penetrated also into our primary and secondary educational system. Fresh out of Yale at the time of writing this book, Buckley is very well armed to make the indictment. It is amazing that, at such a useful age, he could have such mature insight. Then again, we should recall that Alexander Hamilton was in his early 20s when he wrote a large proportion of the federalist papers. This brilliance In a youthful and passionate person is inspiring.