A Lasting Infamy

The Dartmouth Review Pleads Innocent: Twenty-Five Years of Being Threatened, Impugned, Vandalized, Sued, Suspended, and Bitten at the Ivy League’s Most Controversial Conservative Newspaper, edited by James Panero and Stefan Beck (ISI, 361 pp., $25)

My well-intentioned brother cannot have been pleased when, two short years later, I ascended To the Editorship of The Dartmouth Review, the notorious conservative campus journal that has for 25 years tormented activists and administrators at Dartmouth. When the other side throws sand, the Review responds with a gleaming set of brass knuckles, a crushing combination of logic, wit, humor, and – the sine qua non – derision. The willingness to attack opponents mercilessly, and sometimes unfairly, doesn’t win many friends on campus – but it does earn a certain amount of notoriety. In our case the reputation went national. Mention The Dartmouth Review to a college administrator, and it’s a safe bet he’ll break out in a cold sweat. Fame may last a minute, but infamy lasts a lifetime.

AB

About the Author

Alston B. Ramsay

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The Dartmouth Review Pleads Innocent: Twenty-Five Years of Being Threatened, Impugned, Vandalized, Sued, Suspended, and Bitten at the Ivy League’s Most Controversial Conservative Newspaper, edited by James Panero and Stefan Beck (ISI, 361 pp., $25)

My well-intentioned brother cannot have been pleased when, two short years later, I ascended To the Editorship of The Dartmouth Review, the notorious conservative campus journal that has for 25 years tormented activists and administrators at Dartmouth. When the other side throws sand, the Review responds with a gleaming set of brass knuckles, a crushing combination of logic, wit, humor, and – the sine qua non – derision. The willingness to attack opponents mercilessly, and sometimes unfairly, doesn’t win many friends on campus – but it does earn a certain amount of notoriety. In our case the reputation went national. Mention The Dartmouth Review to a college administrator, and it’s a safe bet he’ll break out in a cold sweat. Fame may last a minute, but infamy lasts a lifetime.