Richard Landes Salem on the Thames

Annotation

This compelling volume focuses on the story of AndrewPessin, a tenured philosophy professor at Connecticut College, who was accusedby students and faculty of having "directly condoned the extermination of apeople" based on a deliberate misreading of his 2015 Facebook post on the Israeli-Palestinianconi ict. Salem on the Thames captures the events as they unfolded anddiscusses topics such as Western sentiments concerning Israeli-Palestinianrelations, academics and free speech, antisemitism and diversity on the collegecampus, and social media and politics. The Pessin affair offers us a case studyin a tendency towards "public shaming" reminiscent of the Salem witch trialsthat deeply compromises the integrity of academia.