- Paperback: 712 pages
- Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (Aug 21 1981)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 038790607X
- ISBN-13: 978-0387906072
- Product Dimensions: 27.7 x 21.3 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 4.3 Kg
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,399,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The File is a collection of documents from a major dispute involving a number of American college professors, mainly mathematicians, statisticians,and sociologists. The controversy was ignited by the mathematician Serge Lang's reaction to a questionnaire, "The 1977 Survey of the American Professoriate", distributed by E. C. Ladd of the University of Connecticut and S. M. Lipset of Stanford. The ensuing discussion - in part acrimonious and personal - soon involved a large group of active and passive participants, and included issues such as survey techniques, evaluation of academic work, public and political honesty, and McCarthyism at Harvard.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great documentation on an academic controversy, May 27 2001
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The File: Case Study in Correction. (1977-1979) (Paperback)
Serge Lang's "file" covering the Ladd-Lipsett 1977 "Survey of the American Professorate" is an insider's look into the politics of poor science. Lang, as usual, exposes the inaccuracies, misstatements and hypocrisy of our nation's leading "intellectuals" by reproducing their very own words. He has actual correspondence from the major characters involved and simply puts them on display for you to draw your own conclusions. It's almost impossible not to see how some people try to pass off political opinions as "science". If you are looking for an eloquent book-style narrative, this is not really the book for you. The book is mostly reproductions of letters and newspaper columns placed in chronological order, with little comment from Lang. However, if you enjoy reading actual dialogue and want to avoid reading someone else's rehashing of the events, then this book is the only source.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique and Valuable, Mar 28 2002
By A Michael Froomkin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The File: Case Study in Correction. (1977-1979) (Paperback)
This is a strange and wonderful book. It is perfectly titled: it is a reproduction of a file of correspondence and other documents which document the efforts of one unusually persistent man to get members of the academic and journalistic establishment to live up to their professed ideals of Truth. When the price of this is to admit error, or even give equal time for an irreverent, impolitic, iconoclastic, interloper armed with facts and questions, they often prove unequal to the challenge. Is it sociology, or is it the exciting tale of an intellectual knight errant tilting at sacred cows and windmills? Both, and more.
This book will not appeal to people who think we live in the best of all possible worlds. It will appeal to those who think that individual effort to fight for accuracy and to expose intellectual corner-cutting in the service of received wisdom might actually be worth the trouble. It's a pity it's so expensive; it's a wonder it was published at all.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
