Surprise!
For the last day of our Barbie Week, we offer you... a set of interesting documents regarding J. Robert Oppenheimer!
In the mid-1950s, during the height of the McCarthy Red Scare years (and just a few years before the introduction of the Barbie doll!), the president of the University of Washington blocked the appointment of Oppenheimer as a lecturer at the school supposedly because a Communist could not engage in free inquiry due to their ideology.
The University of Washington is sharing on JSTOR some fascinating correspondence from Alfred J. Schweppe, then dean of the University of Washington School of Law, defending the decision; a statement from the American Association of University Professors condemning it—albeit with some dissenters; and a more consistent objection from the University's student committee. We wonder which side lawyer Barbie would have taken...
