Robert Boyers is one of those liberals that libertarians and conservatives like to hear from. He's a liberal academic who has been around a long time. In The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, the Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies, Boyers writes about the absurdity of the PC culture and the manifestations of it in American life and on campuses around the country. In the name of tolerance, intolerance has grown out of control and reason.

The essays sometimes tend to ramble, and lack a strong unity among them. But it's interesting to hear about his experiences and perspectives as a contrarian in the PC world. His decades in the academic life give him a platform and credibility. It makes me wonder, though, if a younger academic could get away with saying some of the things Dr. Boyers says.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Worthy Conversation. Boyers is by his own admission a liberal academic. In that, he means both that he genuinely favors much of the current progressive political agenda, but also the more classical sense of liberalism at least in regards to free and open speech. This discussion is thus from that point of view, critiquing the more "hard core" progressives for their lack of civility and commitment to free speech while holding fast to his commitments to ideas such as anthropogenic climate change, racial justice, and other tropes of the left. Boyers is very clearly of the old and dying breed that can disagree with someone while still genuinely respecting them, and this approach is abundantly evident throughout this text. Very much recommended, though likely a fair degree academic for many.