Imagination on Fire

Alejandro Zaera-Polo's book is a first-person account by the former dean of Princeton University's School of Architecture, an international architect who served as a professor who worked at the school for ten years. The book describes the climate of ideological suppression in an elite American university and the mechanisms involved in the process. After an accusation of plagiarism forced him to step down, Zaera-Polo sued Princeton for defamation, but remained a professor until the ideological impositions over his advisory duties forced him into a public conflict with the institution. He persisted doggedly in his claims to academic freedom and free speech and kept the records of the process for publication to document how identity politics, groupthink, deception, and peer pressure can be harnessed to curtail academic freedom and shield the inquisitors from scrutiny. Zaera-Polo tells the story of his challenge to the post-modern culture, critical theory, and the "alternative truths" that have taken root in American universities, a story we should all consider to preserve academic rigor and free expression on our campuses.