An Erudite Endeavor

We are graced with only a handful of years at the College on the Hill, so it is of considerable importance to figure out the best ways in which to spend them. For those more motivated among us, the question of how to maximize our brief intellectual interlude at the College is perhaps most pressing of all.

Each winter break, the staff of The Dartmouth Review returns to their homes with a book in hand. These books — most of which are written by Dartmouth professors — make up the subject matter for our annual book review issue. Among my favorite issues that the Review publishes, the book review issue is a casual but valuable intellectual experience for all who partake. But it is a shame that for most of us it is the only time that we actually read books by Dartmouth professors unless they are on our syllabi. Most Dartmouth students that I have spoken with have never read an unassigned book by a Dartmouth professor, outside of skimming the descriptions of the ones displayed in King Arthur Flour. When I reflect on the books and articles that I have read while a student at Dartmouth, the ones that I would consider the most formative — and which I can recall in the most detail — are those that were written by Dartmouth professors. Thus, I find the rarity of this experience among students to be unfortunate, if not unsettling.

Thinking back to my freshman year, I can vividly recall my decision to review Professor Eng-Beng Lim’s book Brown Boys and Rice Queens. An unlikely choice for a student of conservative persuasion, many fellow Reviewers jested that I would be spending my winter break in intellectual Hell. But, to my pleasant surprise, Lim’s book managed to enthrall me. I admit that I had to learn quite a bit about Orientalism and queer theory to even get past the introduction, but I found the experience immensely valuable. There was certainly value in having to learn about an academic area that I might not have much interest in. And as I said in my review two years ago, I would recommend the book to any conservative with an interest in imperialism and Southeast Asia who might be reluctant to pick it up of their own accord. But more than that, I found that there was communal value in reading Professor Lim’s book simply because he is a member of my own academic community — by reading and interacting with his research, I felt closer to Dartmouth. For freshman Dartmouth can seem imposing and even isolating at first. But by reading Lim’s book, I felt like an active member of Dartmouth — concomitant with that was a sense of belonging that I had not previously experienced. This effective purpose, more than just the intellectual exercise, is why there is accountable value in reading a professor’s book, especially for those lonely freshmen among us.

Even those books that might be disagreeable can still have considerable impact on our experience at the College. When reading former Visiting Professor Mark Bray’s manifesto Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, I quickly realized there was little to be gained from the book intellectually. Still, articulating my issues with his book gave me the confidence to independently criticize a scholarly work — while in my case I did so in a formal review, one need not do more than simply discuss the book with a friend to simulate the same experience. Criticizing scholarly works is a regular part of the curriculum for many students at Dartmouth, but certainly not all. Without the limitations on scope or formal structure of a class, this supplementary exercise offers expanded avenues for inquiry and, obviously, learning. But because it is still a text related to the Dartmouth community, it is still grounded in the rigor of an elite academic community.

While many texts can facilitate this same tempering of critical skills and imbuing of the confidence to apply those skills, there are few that permit one to easily sit down and discuss that text with its author. Perhaps more than all other benefits, this degree of accessibility — as simple as sending an intra-campus email — is the greatest benefit of reading the books written by Dartmouth professors. To forego such a beneficial addition to the Dartmouth experience seems far worse than merely a shame.