A look at "Victimism" in the United States criticizes the ways in which individuals define themselves by their status as victims -- of parents, men, the workplace, etc. Sykes discusses how the "squalling howl of grievance" resounds in the courtroom, on the "therapeutic culture" of the psychiatrist's couch, and on TV panels of sniveling crybabies.

DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS:
Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add
Author: Charles J. Sykes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press - 1996

PROFSCAM: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education
Author: Charles J. Sykes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press - 1990

TENURED RADICALS:
How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education
Author: Roger Kimball
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher - 1998

Kimball's thesis is that there has been a blurring of the social sciences and humanities by those who were involved in and influenced by the radicalism of the 1960's. Since Tenured Radicals first appeared in 1990, it has achieved the status of a minor classic. Trenchant and witty, it lays bare the sham of what now passes for serious teaching and research in the humanities at American universities.