Salem on the Thames
Moral Panic, Anti-Zionism, and the Triumph of Hate Speech at Connecticut College
Published on 7. April 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
218 pages
978-1-64469-099-4 (ISBN)
Description
In the Spring of 2015, a post-modern version of the Salem witchcraft trials took place at Connecticut College on the Thames River. Only this time instead of sorcery it was Zionism; instead of punishing in the name of God's law it was in the name of anti-hate speech and inclusive excellence; instead of young teenage girls leading the hysteria it was college-aged social warriors stampeding 200 professors into sacrificing one of their colleagues, and thereby contributing to a wave of administration-promoted hate-speech at their college.The Pessin affair offers us a case study in a tendency towards "public shaming" that not only deeply compromises the integrity of academia, but increasingly spreads to many aspects of our society, so susceptible to media-driven feeding frenzies.
Reviews / Votes
"Salem on the Thames is a collection of essays, butmost of them, including a very helpful annotated chronology of events, are by
Landes, who has also compiled an extensive archive of primary-source documents
at his blog. He and his other contributors dissect each and every way Pessin
was sucker punched, lied to, manipulated, and thrown under the bus."
- Elliot Kaufman, Jewish Review of Books
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Brighton
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
339 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64469-099-4 (9781644690994)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard Landes trained as a medieval historian. He specializes in messianic and apocalyptic movements, as well as shame-honor cultures and the impact of literacy on their dynamics. He has recently completed a history of the opening years of the twenty-first century, as a turning point in relations between two millennial movements: global Jihad and post-modern progressivism.
Content
Preface - Richard Landes
Introduction - Asaf Romirowsky
Andrew Pessin's Facebook Post during Operation Protective Edge
Condensed Timeline
Part I: When Criticizing Hamas Became a Campus Hate Crime - Richard Landes
1. The Post: On Truth and Metaphor
2. The Shameful Dishonesty of It All: An Annotated Chronology from the Perspective of the Victim
3. The People: McCarthyism, New London Style
Part II: Studies in Pessinology
4. Connecticut College Acts Out a Staged Emergency - Ashley Thorne
5. "I Was Rude, You Were Evil": Reflections on Academia, Liberalism, and the Betrayal of Andrew Pessin - John Gordon
6. The Pessin Case: The Response of Jewish Colleagues - Fred Baumann
Part III: Reflections: Salem on the Thames - Stampeding a Herd of Cats - Richard Landes
7. What Connecticut College's Andrew Pessin Affair Teaches Us
8. Reflections on Academia and Freedom: The Case of Connecticut College, Spring 2015
9. Pessin, Ironic Prophet: The Liberal Emperor's New Clothes of Humanitarian Racism
Part IV: Appendix - Documents
Pessin Affair: Dramatis Personae - Online Petition Posted March 18, 2015
Bibliography
Introduction - Asaf Romirowsky
Andrew Pessin's Facebook Post during Operation Protective Edge
Condensed Timeline
Part I: When Criticizing Hamas Became a Campus Hate Crime - Richard Landes
1. The Post: On Truth and Metaphor
2. The Shameful Dishonesty of It All: An Annotated Chronology from the Perspective of the Victim
3. The People: McCarthyism, New London Style
Part II: Studies in Pessinology
4. Connecticut College Acts Out a Staged Emergency - Ashley Thorne
5. "I Was Rude, You Were Evil": Reflections on Academia, Liberalism, and the Betrayal of Andrew Pessin - John Gordon
6. The Pessin Case: The Response of Jewish Colleagues - Fred Baumann
Part III: Reflections: Salem on the Thames - Stampeding a Herd of Cats - Richard Landes
7. What Connecticut College's Andrew Pessin Affair Teaches Us
8. Reflections on Academia and Freedom: The Case of Connecticut College, Spring 2015
9. Pessin, Ironic Prophet: The Liberal Emperor's New Clothes of Humanitarian Racism
Part IV: Appendix - Documents
Pessin Affair: Dramatis Personae - Online Petition Posted March 18, 2015
Bibliography