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4 Hum. Rts. Q. 305 (1982)
Alexander Meiklejohn: Teacher of Freedom

handle is hein.journals/hurq4 and id is 315 raw text is: Book Reviews ALEXANDER MEIKLEJOHN: TEACH- ER OF FREEDOM, edited by Cynthia Stokes Brown (California: The Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, 1981) 281 pp.; $13.95; paperback $7.95. The Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Insti- tute's recent publication of its name- sake's writings could come at no better time. Liberal education and free inquiry-the two aspects of life and politics to which Alexander Meiklejohn spoke most directly-both face a rocky future. The impetus towards more open government and a less icy atmosphere for journalists and researchers has been reversed, and some key reforms watered down. For instance, just a few weeks after the CIA resumed domestic covert operations, the assistant director of the organization, Robert Inman, tells the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science that researchers should begin voluntarily submitting their work for a national security review, or else possibly face a legislative requirement that they do so. In higher education, technocratic thinking has replaced the art of intelligence so honored by Meikle- john, while radical professors are more frequently being singled out for pink slips and promotionless careers. Considering characteristics of current times, from the Moral Majority's politi- cal clout to the hyperpatriotic stance of the Reagan White House, Meiklejohn would certainly despair, just as he did with McCarthyism and the narrow-mind- edness which led to his own dismissal from the Amherst College presidency. The Scottish born philosopher-educator would probably cite the present political era as evidence that this coun- try's experiment in self-government and freedom was failing. However he would couple that unhappy diagnosis with what seems to be an unflagging optimism: a belief that, given the right atmosphere and the proper education, the common person can make the hard choices needed to successfully run a truly democratic society. The Institute's anthology, edited by Cynthia Stokes Brown, covers Meikle- john's thinking from his student days to his still productive final years in Califor- nia and includes a short biography by the editor. The volume is divided into five sections, but the themes are consis- tent: Meiklejohn defending his notion of the liberal college; Meiklejohn advocat- ing open-minded education in general; and Meiklejohn, towards the middle and end of his life, arguing for a strict inter- pretation of the First Amendment. It is natural that Meiklejohn, who died in 1964 at age 82, should have moved from philosophizing about edu- cation to studying and defending freedom of speech. For his ideas about the former to be meaningful-particu- larly as they applied to the Experimental College he ran at the University of Wis- consin from 1927 to 1932-an interpre- tation of the First Amendment was required that allowed the expression of any idea given the proper setting, such as a classroom. Together, free speech and democrat- ically distributed liberal learning would provide the country with a sort of grand iterative process-replacing the invisi- ble hand, either left or right, with the human mind -in which everyone partic- ipated to attack and solve national and international problems. Give a person, any person, a little coaching, access to books and data, and time to think, and eventually he or she will be able to tackle with other citizens whatever social or political questions need to be addressed. A democracy only works if its people are educated, and education

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