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April 10, 2014
More hard times at Duke: Salon excerpt from new book about Duke lacrosse rape case.
In early 2006, three members of Duke University's nationally ranked lacrosse case were falsely accused of rape in a protracted, much publicized and over-hyped criminal case brought in Durham, North Carolina (where Duke, for odd historical reasons, is located). The case led, for starters, to the resignation of the Duke lacrosse team's head coach, cancellation of the remainder of school's 2006 lacrosse season, and the disbarment of the case's initial lead prosecutor for Durham County, North Carolina. The case even had/has its own blog, Durham-In-Wonderland, still continuing, and one of the the better analytical blogs out there. And now there's a new book (the third, by my count) about the episode: "The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, the Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities" (Scribner) by William D. Cohan, a well-regarded business writer. Cohan, like me, is a Duke grad. The party where the alleged rape occurred was in a house a few down from my house at Duke, on Buchanan Avenue, when as an undergraduate I worked on Duke's daily newspaper. I am still active in things Duke. So I will buy and read the book. In the meantime, see this excerpt from the book in yesterday's Salon. Note: While anyone could gather from the Salon excerpt alone that Cohan is a fine researcher, investigator and storyteller--I already know he is, having read his previous book on Goldman Sachs--I'll of course read the whole book before spouting off on it. With one notable exception. It's not premature to comment on the book's full title, i.e., the subtitle ending in "the Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities". It's ambitious; that's fine. But it panders a bit, too--even if the book supports it. Shame on Scribner.
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Posted by JD Hull at April 10, 2014 02:53 PM