The Diversity Myth

Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus

Published by Independent Institute
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

This is a powerful exploration of the debilitating impact that politically correct "multiculturalism" has had upon higher education and academic freedom in the United States.

In the name of diversity, many leading academic and cultural institutions are working to silence dissent and stifle intellectual life. This book exposes the real impact of multiculturalism on the institution most closely identified with the politically correct decline of higher education—Stanford University.

Authored by two Stanford graduates, this book is a compelling insider’s tour of a world of speech codes, "dumbed-down" admissions standards and curricula, campus witch hunts, and anti-Western zealotry that masquerades as legitimate scholarly inquiry. Sacks and Thiel use numerous primary sources—the Stanford Daily, class readings, official university publications—to reveal a pattern of politicized classes, housing, budget priorities, and more. They trace the connections between such disparate trends as political correctness, the gender wars, Generation X nihilism, and culture wars, showing how these have played a role in shaping multiculturalism at institutions like Stanford.

The authors convincingly show that multiculturalism is not about learning more; it is actually about learning less. They end their comprehensive study by detailing the changes necessary to reverse the tragic disintegration of American universities and restore true academic excellence.

About The Authors

David O. Sacks is vice president of product strategy at PayPal, Inc. He has worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Representative Christopher Cox and received his A.B. in economics from Stanford University. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Policy Review, and Academic Questions.

Peter A. Thiel is chairman and CEO at PayPal, Inc. He has worked as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse Financial Products, a securities lawyer for Sullivan & Cromwell, and a speechwriter for former education secretary William J. Bennett. He received his A.B. in philosophy and J.D. from Stanford University.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Independent Institute (January 1, 1999)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781598131994

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Raves and Reviews

“The story of The Diversity Myth is based at Stanford, but this book is larger than that. As a Harvard graduate, I recognize my own school in these pages, and quite likely you will too. By detailing the current corruption of our academic ideals with a larger audience, David Sacks and Peter Thiel have hastened the much-needed and long-awaited restoration of higher education.”

Christopher Cox, former Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; former U.S. Congressman (R)

"The Diversity Myth shows how McCarthyism on the left is as dangerous as McCarthyism on the right. Read it and weep for what is happening on our college campuses."

Richard D. Lamm, former Governor (D) of Colorado

“In a new book, The Diversity Myth, authors David Sacks and Peter Thiel show how Stanford University has incorporated the multicultural agenda into its undergraduate curriculum. The authors note that Stanford’s undergraduates can now get credit for such courses as ‘Creation/Procreation,’ which looks into ‘the gendered aspects of cosmological or religious systems,’ and ’Gender and Science,’ which purports to study science free of outdated assumptions. There is also a feminist studies course titled ‘How Tasty Were my French Sisters,’ about which I dare not speculate.”

Wall Street Journal

“Years ago, William Buckley, a very young Yale graduate, authored the seminal critique of higher education in America, God and Man at Yale. Sacks and Thiel, very young Stanford graduates, have now written the sequel. The Diversity Myth confirms the continuing decline of intellectual integrity in our finest colleges and universities and lays bare what must be corrected if higher education is ever to achieve the great potential of which it is capable.”

Martin C. Anderson, Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

The Diversity Myth is a carefully documented and sensitively recorded historical account of the whole tragic saga, together with keen analysis of how all this could have happened. Future historians will find this book indispensable.”

National Review

"There is no higher duty for intellectuals than to denounce incipient totalitarianism wherever they observe it. Some of its symptoms are present at Stanford. In The Diversity Myth, two recent Stanford graduates document the situation there with a thoroughness and depth of analysis that should help stiffen the spine of university administrators."

René N. T. Girard, Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization, Stanford University

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