Safe Enough Spaces

A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses

Roth Michael S.

n this bracing book, Michael S. Roth stakes out a pragmatist path through the thicket of issues facing colleges today to carry out the mission of higher education. With great empathy, candor, subtlety, and insight, Roth offers a sane approach to the noisy debates surrounding affirmative action, political correctness, and free speech, urging us to envision college as a space in which students are empowered to engage with criticism and with a variety of ideas.

Countering the increasing cynical dismissal – from both liberals and conservatives – of the traditional core values of higher education, this book champions the merits of different diversities, including intellectual diversity, with a timely call for universities to embrace boldness, rigor, and practical idealism.

About the Author

Michael S. Roth is president of Wesleyan University and the author of five books of intellectual history, most recently "Memory, Trauma and History". A professor in history and the humanities, he teaches at Wesleyan and reaches many thousands more through his open online Coursera course, The Modern and the Post-Modern.

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