Connoisseurs of academic fatuousness will remember the debacle of Lee Bass’s twenty-million-dollar grant to Yale University. In 1991, Mr. Bass, a 1979 Yale alumnus, made this extraordinary gift to his alma mater in order to strengthen Yale’s offerings in Western civilization and to provide an alternative to the radical multiculturalism that has had such a disfiguring influence on the humanities in American colleges and universities. The inspiration for Mr. Bass’s gift came partly from the eminent Yale classics professor Donald Kagan, a former dean of Yale College and an avid supporter of what is best in the traditional liberal arts curriculum.

Naturally, this educational initiative, emphasizing the importance of Western culture and its intellectual, moral, and political achievements met with fierce resistance from entrenched radical elements at Yale. Years went by, and nothing was done to implement the integrated course of studies or ...

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