Talk:Joel Kovel/Archive 1

Assessment
I'm assessing this as B per the request on WikiProject_Biography/Assessment, but I'm troubled by the amount that seems to be about and sourced from the author's own works. While we certainly want to say something about what his views are, we don't want to devote almost all the article to what he writes, a large part, if not most, of the article, should be about what other people write about him. --AnonEMouse (squeak) 17:55, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Radical psychiatry and topics to cover
The eco-socialism discussion is really, really long; it seems well enough written though. I moved the flap over Overcoming Zionism toward the end to match the chronology of Kovel's career. However, I think a more general section like "Opinions towards Zionism" would be better. Rather than just look at reactions to that one book (not Kovel's first writing on Zionism/Israel/etc. by any means), we should also explain what positions Kovel himself actually advances. Given the zillion words on eco-socialism, surely we could manage a few on this as well. As well, I think there really needs to be some tie-in with the alleged connection between Kovel's firing and his Zionism book. While we probably shouldn't use Kovel's own characterization, being a primary source, it might be worth editors looking at: http://www.joelkovel.org/#bardstatement.

What is dramatically missing in this article is any discussion of Kovel's work on psychiatry, which is after all half his writing or so. Of course, I only really know of this writing, so I'm hoping some other editor has actually read it or reviews of it. LotLE × talk 22:05, 27 February 2009 (UTC)


 * To follow up on myself. This is a third-party source with a statement on Kovel's firing: http://www.web.gpnys.com/?p=982.  It's not entirely neutral since Kovel is a member and activist of the Green Party, but at least it's something other than Kovel's own statement. We might be able to cite this.  LotLE × talk  22:08, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Possibly useful paragraph
The following had been posted on Pluto Press, but it seems it's mostly about his book Overcoming Zionism. Perhaps someone can clean-up all the dead links and use it here:


 * Jonathan Calt Harris, the Christian Zionist director of the Michigan chapter of StandWithUs, said the book was "an anti-Zionist screed that tries to prove Zionism is a horrible, racist ideology that brings about only bad." The director of the UM Press, Phil Pochoda, expressed similar feelings.  "The issue raised by the book is not free speech, but hate speech," wrote Pochoda. "Perhaps such vituperative and aggressive rhetoric works for the barricades, but it cannot be countenanced or underwritten by the university or the university press, even in this peripheral, distributed capacity."  And Betsy Kellman, director of the Michigan regional chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, was "shocked" by the university's decision.  "ADL has often said you can be critical of Israel, but at some point you cross the line and it turns into anti-Semitism," she said. "This book is holding Israel to a very different standard than other countries."  "We strongly believe in the First Amendment and are all for diversity of views, but this book deals with anti-Semitic canards and has nothing to do with academic integrity."

Tijfo098 (talk) 21:42, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Inconsistency between this article and "Bard College"
Bard College mentions controversy over his "Red-Hunting" book, attacks by Ann Coulter, etc. while this article seems to have nothing on it... AnonMoos (talk) 12:31, 15 April 2011 (UTC)