Robert Weissberg

Robert Weissberg (born 1941) is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois. He is the author of twelve books on politics and pedagogy. He has published numerous scientific papers in leading journals in political science.^[1] Weissberg has also written for magazines such as Forbes, Society, and The Weekly Standard.^[2][3] He has also been a speaker at American Renaissance Magazine conferences^[4] where he has been outspoken about his belief in the average mental differences between races.

Education and academic career

A graduate of Teaneck High School, Weissberg earned an A.B. from Bard College and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin. He was an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and later Associate Professor and Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He retired from the University of Illinois in 2003.^[5]

Reputation

Since retiring from the University of Illinois, Weissberg's choice of topics and unapologetic stance have led him to be described as a "slaughterer of sacred cows."^[6] In his 2010 Bad Students, Not Bad Schools, he summarizes the extensive psychometric literature indicating that Hispanics and blacks have lower IQs than whites and Asians, and notes that this literature supports the conclusion that such differences are at least in part genetically determined.^[7] Weissberg's outspoken presentation of these issues has attracted negative attention from writers across the ideological spectrum,^[8][9] a reaction anticipated by Weissberg himself in the preface to the book: "Bad Students, Not Bad Schools might be called an Emperor’s New Clothes book—it says what everybody (or nearly everybody) knows to be true but is fearful of expressing in public—America’s educational woes just reflect our current demographic mix of students. . . . Indifference to political fashion and pressure, a let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may attitude is a great advantage in a field where nearly all research must placate various gods or at least not offend reigning check-issuing deities, liberal or conservative." ^[10]

In April 2012, in the wake of the John Derbyshire firing, National Review ended its relationship with Weissberg, noting that the editors only recently discovered that Weissberg had "participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism".^[11][12] However, in an article reflecting on the affair, American Renaissance founder and editor Jared Taylor noted that, during his talk at the conference, Weissberg himself declared that "any movement based on white racial identity is 'dead on arrival,'" and characterized Lowry's subsequent denunciation of Weissberg as an example of "cringing" in the face of political correctness: "NR made no friends by cutting off its smartest contributors. It earned the contempt of both its supporters and its enemies."^[13]

Books

• American Democracy: Theory & Reality (1972), ASIN B000SGT9O4.
• Political Learning, Political Choice, & Democratic Citizenship (1974). ISBN 978-0136849933.
• Elementary Political Analysis (co-authored with Herbert Jacob) (1975). ISBN 978-0070321366.
• Public Opinion and Popular Government (1976). ISBN 978-0137379088.
• Understanding American Government (1979). ASIN B000OA72PM.
• Political Tolerance: Balancing Community and Diversity (1998). ISBN 978-0803973435.
• The Politics of Empowerment (1999). ISBN 978-0275964269.
• Democracy and the Academy (2000). ISBN 978-1560727835.
• Polling, Policy, and Public Opinion: The Case Against Heeding the "Voice of the People" (2002). ISBN 978-0312294953.
• The Limits of Civic Activism: Cautionary Tales on the Use of Politics (2004). ISBN 978-0765802613.
• Pernicious Tolerance: How Teaching to "Accept Differences" Undermines Civil Society (2008). ISBN 978-1412845793.
• Bad Students, Not Bad Schools (2010). ISBN 978-1412813457.

Selected bibliography

• "Academic Deception for Fun and Profit". Telos 112 (Summer 1998). New York: Telos Press.
• "The Perils of Keeping America America". Human Events August 25, 2004

Notes

1. For example, "Political Efficacy and Political Illusion," Journal of Politics 37 (1975): 469-487, "Consensual Attitudes and Attitude Structure," Public Opinion Quarterly 40 (1976): 349-359, "Collective vs. Dyadic Representation in Congress, American Political Science Review 72 (1978): 535-547; (with Ben Ginsberg) "Elections and Mobilization of Popular Support," American Journal of Political Science 22 (1978): 31-55, and "Assessing Legislator-Constituency Policy Agreement," Legislative Studies Quarterly 4 (1979): 605-622.
2. VDARE 1
3. VDARE 2
4. ARM conference on YouTube
5. "One hundred thirty-four faculty members and academic professionals retire," University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau, Inside Illinois, Vol. 23, No. 9, Nov. 6, 2003.
6. Daniels, Anthony. Sisyphus goes to school: A review of Bad Students, Not Bad Schools by Robert Weissberg, New Criterion, September 2010.
7. "After all, a sizeable, scientifically respectable literature shows that IQ is substantially inheritable, and varies by demographic group . . . [but] while genes are important, they are not totally determining, and they certainly cannot establish the 'ought' in social policy. Genes, save in rare circumstances, are about probabilities[.]" Robert Weissberg Bad Students Not Bad Schools, p. 114-5 et passim.
8. John K. Wilson, "The Racist Professor at the University of Illinois," The Academe Blog, September 4, 2014.
9. Rich Lowry, "Regarding Robert Weissberg", April 11, 2012 National Review.
10. Robert Weissberg, Bad Students Not Bad Schools, p. vii-xii.
11. Rich Lowry, "Regarding Robert Weissberg", April 11, 2012 National Review.
12. Annie-Rose Strasser, "National Review Fires Another Racist Writer", April 11, 2012 Think Progress.
13. Jared Taylor, "The Derbyshire/Weissberg Affair", April 13, 2012 American Renaissance.