Student Readers Go Rogue

Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, is number 4 on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s What They’re Reading on College Campuses bestseller list. This could produce the biggest shock wave to hit faculty lounges since Reagan captured the youth vote, you betcha’. Of course, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is at number 2 and their sequel, SuperFreakonomics, is at number 6.

Freakonomics, be it remembered, is the magnum opus of University of Chicago economist Levitt, which alleged that abortion reduced crime rates. That heinous theory has been wrongly attributed to conservative commentator William Bennett, who attacked it, rather than Levitt, who proposed it and kept his place of honor at UChi and got the chance to do a sequel.

Our own, extremely limited and hardly scientific poll indicates Freakonomics has been assigned a few times. We’ll poll on whether Going Rogue was but would not be surprised if it hasn’t.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.