How to Fire a Professor at the University of Florida: Two Historical Blueprints

Abstract:This essay draws attention to a recurring pattern within American reactionary thought that imagines university professors as subversive threats to the culture and morality of the nation. Two stories from the University of Florida illustrate this pattern: In 1911, historian Enoch Marvin Banks became the object of censure when he published an academic article that argued slavery was a cause of the Civil War. In 1959, geographer Sigismond Diettrich became known to state operatives when he was coerced by investigators to confess to his participation in sexual acts with men. In narrating the stories of Banks and Diettrich—both of whom the University of Florida forced to resign because of these controversies—the article argues that the shifting terrains of the culture wars do not provide firm foundations from which to reform and improve universities.