Join Matthew C. Ehrlich and Ryan Ross for a virtual event celebrating the release of Dangerous Ideas on Campus: Sex, Conspiracy, and Academic Freedom in the Age of JFK on February 3 at 4pm CT.
Register here: https://bit.ly/EhrlichEvent
About the Book:
In 1960, University of Illinois professor Leo Koch wrote a public letter condoning premarital sex. He was fired. Four years later, a professor named Revilo Oliver made white supremacist remarks and claimed there was a massive communist conspiracy. He kept his job. Matthew C. Ehrlich revisits the Koch and Oliver cases to look at free speech, the legacy of the 1960s, and debates over sex and politics on campus. Ehrlich delves into the issues behind these academic controversies and places the events in the context of a time rarely associated with dissent, but in fact a harbinger of the social and political upheavals to come. An enlightening and entertaining history, "Dangerous Ideas on Campus" illuminates how the university became a battleground for debating America's hot-button issues.
Matthew C. Ehrlich is a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His previous books, all published by the University of Illinois Press, include "Journalism in the Movies;" "Radio Utopia: Postwar Audio Documentary in the Public Interest;" "Heroes and Scoundrels: The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture," coauthored with Joe Saltzman; and "Kansas City vs. Oakland: The Bitter Sports Rivalry That Defined an Era."
Ryan A. Ross is assistant director of the University of Illinois Alumni Association’s history and traditions programs, associate editor of Illinois Alumni magazine, and curator of the Richmond Family Welcome Gallery at Alice Campbell Alumni Center. Ryan is the author of a monograph on early Illinois newspapers and articles on Illinois history and politics, private libraries, film history, and historical archaeology.
