If this piece from Front Page is true, then a Yale history lecturer has just been denied tenure for writing a book critical of the Left during the Spanish Civil War. Stanley Payne, the well-known Hispanist and professor at the University of Wisconsin, said that the lecturer's book would break new ground in the study of Spain and the Civil War. In case you don't know him, Professor Payne has written many books on Spain, including a fine general history of Iberia, books on Fascism and Communism in Europe, and three excellent studies of Spanish politics before and during the Civil War, one of which is brand-new. Payne is one of the few academics, in America or anywhere else, who attempts to give a "fair and balanced" perspective on the Civil War. That is, he's not blindly pro-Left. In fact, he's not even pro-Left at all! He is extremely critical of BOTH sides, but he's most famous for being critical of the Left because no one else of his stature dares to do so. And he speaks up for the lecturer's work.

But the Yale faculty refused to give tenure to the lecturer, who I hope will light out for Wisconsin to work with Payne or to a university of conservative intellectual bent such as Chicago or Pepperdine. That's what happens when you buck the majority in today's American academic world.