Saturday, February 06, 2016

Karl Marx the Most Assigned Text at Michigan Colleges

Karl Marx the Most Assigned Text at Michigan Colleges [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
According to the Open Syllabus Project, a database of over 1 million college course outlines from the past decade, Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” is the most frequently assigned book on Michigan college campuses.
The book appears in the syllabi of 90 Michigan college courses, nine more than “Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley.
One book is about a grotesque experiment thrust upon the world with tragic consequences, and the other is the classic novel “Frankenstein.”
The Open Syllabus Project is not fully comprehensive.
It notes, “Our matching algorithms also have some difficulty with short titles based on commonly-used words, and more so when these lack an author. This affects a very small number of works, but some significant ones like 'The Bible' and 'The Constitution.' ”
The book (Marx not Shelley) calls for the “abolition of individuality and freedom” and an end to the capitalist system, and can be purchased on the website www.MarxistBooks.com.

2 comments:

JK Brown said...

Such a sad state. I'm just finishing up Luwig von Mises 'Liberalism' which would be much more substantive text to base a course upon. And it wouldn't preclude reading or at least discussing Marx as a contrast. Not to mention, published (originally in German) in 1927, Mises' book avoid the post-Nazi fetishes when discussing fascism.

I still wonder why universities assign 'The Communist Manifesto'. The Physic department doesn't assign texts on alchemy. So why do the Liberal Arts assign books based on disproven beliefs?

Jim Riley said...

JK, well stated. I love the physics comparison.