“I have been waiting a long time for someone to write this book, and Jeff Schmidt has done it. He exposes, in crystal-clear prose, the inevitably political nature of the professional in our society, and, most importantly, suggests a strategy for resistance. This is an extraordinary and valuable piece of writing.” -- Howard Zinn, Author of A People’s History of the United States “A radical, disturbing, and provocative look at professional life. It offers a profound analysis of the personal struggles for identity and meaning in the lives of today’s 21 million professionals. The book will shake up readers.” -- Andi O’Conor Ohio University “A witty, incisive, original analysis of the politics of professionalism -- especially with respect to those fields in which professional training involves an education in how to become oblivious to the political role of one’s profession.” -- Michael Berube, University of Illinois “A blistering critique of how knowledge workers have been subordinated in America. Finally, a book that tells it like it is.” -- Stanley Aronowitz, Author of The Jobless Future “This book should be read by anyone thinking about embarking on a professional education in any field, as well as by those who wonder why their dream job doesn’t seem so dreamy after all.” -- Andrew Pollock, Politics and Prose bookstore, Washington, D.C. “Schmidt analyzes the true meaning of being a professional and the sacrifices that professionals make to achieve their career goals. He challenges them to think outside the box -- to use their intuition and their attitude to provide for a better society.” -- Carrie Crystal Van Driel, Public Citizen “A freewheeling, thought-provoking examination of the way ideological control is exercised over an increasingly important section of the working class -- the professionals.” -- Nature, Society, and Thought “I found Disciplined Minds while planning a course that deals with the social role and moral responsibility of intellectuals, and after I finished reading it I whooped with joy. It is the perfect book to engage students on these issues -- well researched, powerfully argued, and clearly written. Even conservative students with politics at odds with Schmidt's find the book valuable because of its (sometimes painful) honesty and clarity. In addition to using it in my course, I wish I could make Disciplined Minds required reading for my faculty colleagues.” -- Robert Jensen School of Journalism University of Texas at Austin “Schmidt has hit the bull’s-eye.” -- The Texas Observer “Your employment is terminated -- now!” -- Physics Today ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Articles and letters with deletions specified by the American Institute of Physics in Settlement Agreement Exhibit D (all pdf)... * The Biological Physicist Article in American Physical Society publication, after deletions required by the American Institute of Physics [American Physical Society, Division of Biological Physics, The Biological Physicist, volume 1, number 3, October 2001, pages 3-5.] * Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal Article after deletions required by the American Institute of Physics [Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal (ISSN 1499-9439), volume IV, issue 2, January 2006, page 19.] * Letter from Michelle Squitieri, an organizer who has three degrees in English, after deletions required by the American Institute of Physics * Letter from medical doctor Susan Rosenthal and graduate student Roberto Jankowski- Alfonso, after deletions required by the American Institute of Physics * Letter from Matt L., after deletions required by the American Institute of Physics ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Author interviews Radio (mp3, 36:22, aired on 17 stations) Carta (published in Italian) Italian State Radio (RealAudio, 2:11) ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Reviews... Education Review and The Adjunct Advocate AMAPCEO Member News (Canada) (p. 5 in pdf) Teaching Sociology (American Sociological Association) Z Magazine and Sex and Guts magazine Washington City Paper Radical Teacher Processed World (pages 93-94 in pdf) Texas Observer Workplace (issue 6.2) Workplace (issue 4.2) Business and Society Review Nature, Society, and Thought Frontline (India) International Socialist Review Self-University Newsletter Physics and Society (American Physical Society, Forum on Physics and Society) Review of Radical Political Economics Higher Education Review (England) Social Anarchism The Antigonish Review (Canada) Interchange: A quarterly review of education Public Citizen News recommended reading Politics and Prose staff pick IEEE Spectrum “Editors’ Picks” (pdf) Goat Bulletin (page 6 in pdf) Chronicle of Higher Education Journal of Economic Literature (American Economic Association) Eleven more reviews are posted at Amazon.com ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Get the book! Click Here or on the image below to go to the book’s listing at Amazon.com. The paperback version is in stock. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers is offering the book at a special Web price of $21.21. ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Instructors... Use Disciplined Minds in your courses and provoke your students to question some of their most basic assumptions! Disciplined Minds works well in courses in sociology, education, business, labor studies, STS (science, technology and society) and many other subjects.

Fired author follows own advice, wins justice... The power of a public campaign Upon publication of Disciplined Minds, the American Institute of Physics fired author Jeff Schmidt. He had been on the editorial staff of Physics Today magazine for 19 years. Following advice given in the book itself, Schmidt and free-expression advocates mounted a campaign that brought public judgment to bear on Schmidt’s dismissal. Such justice is available to anyone not afraid to go public. The public campaign also led to a formal settlement whose terms are highly favorable to Schmidt. Schmidt credits and thanks the hundreds of physicists and others who spoke out publicly. “This is a victory for free expression,” says Schmidt, “and a demonstration of the power of organizing.” Special thanks go to activist physicists Sanjoy Mahajan (United Kingdom), Brian Martin (Australia), Denis Rancourt (Canada), Talat Rahman (US), Michael Lee (US), George Reiter (US), and Fay Dowker (United Kingdom) for their support over many years. The demands for justice that were posted here are now part of history, and have not been erased from history. Thanks also to the National Writers Union for its support for freedom of expression. Schmidt thanks the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Howrey LLP for representing him pro bono publico (that’s Latin for “free”) because of their concern about the free-speech and diversity issues surrounding his dismissal. The American Physical Society and several smaller physics organizations govern the American Institute of Physics, which is a publishing and advocacy organization that publishes Physics Today. Highlights of the settlement Payment The American Institute of Physics has made a monetary payment to Schmidt, settling his demand for years of back pay and benefits, front pay in lieu of reinstatement, compensation for pain and suffering, and other damages. Public settlement agreement (pdf version) At Schmidt’s insistence, the settlement agreement is a public document -- highly unusual for an out-of-court settlement with a nongovernmental organization. Symbolic reinstatement -- view the letter! (pdf) AIP reinstated Schmidt to his position at Physics Today magazine. A few hours later, Schmidt resigned. Public statement by AIP The American Institute of Physics has publicly acknowledged that Schmidt’s supervisors and others praised his work and that AIP fired him for writing in Disciplined Minds, “This book is stolen. Written in part on stolen time, that is.” Employment reference (pdf) AIP has given Schmidt a positive reference letter. SCHMIDT’S CONCESSIONS TO AIP’S DEMANDS... Deletion of text from articles published by the American Physical Society and the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal Schmidt has complied with AIP’s demand that he white out certain text specified by AIP in articles published by the American Physical Society and the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal and posted at http://disciplinedminds.com. Other website deletions (pdf) Schmidt has complied with AIP’s demand that he remove from the http://disciplinedminds.com website various documents specified by AIP. The deleted material includes news reports published by various newspapers and magazines. However, the deleted documents are fully referenced in the settlement agreement, which is public. Schmidt would not agree to conceal the deletion list. Non-disparagement Schmidt has agreed to AIP’s demand that he not say anything disparaging of AIP. (A disparaging statement may be true or false.) Payment amount confidential Schmidt has agreed to AIP’s demand that he keep secret how much money AIP gave him. Affirmative action Jeff Schmidt welcomes AIP’s pledge, which has been announced publicly, to undertake new affirmative action, under which AIP will... ...Support the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) in becoming a member society of AIP and appointing a member of the AIP governing board. ...Encourage each AIP member society to work with the NSBP and NSHP diversity councils. ...Offer a science-writing course at the next NSBP conference, which will increase the pool of talented minority-group editors. ...Maintain a program of mandatory diversity training for all AIP employees. Schmidt strongly supports affirmative action. He argues in Disciplined Minds that work is an inherently political activity and that hiring therefore involves political screening. This understanding leads naturally to a new argument for affirmative action: to increase political diversity in the workplace. Schmidt favored affirmative action while he was at AIP. DISCIPLINED MINDS Who are you going to be? That is the question. In this riveting book about the world of professional work, Jeff Schmidt demonstrates that the workplace is a battleground for the very identity of the individual, as is graduate school, where professionals are trained. He shows that professional work is inherently political, and that professionals are hired to subordinate their own vision and maintain strict “ideological discipline.” The hidden root of much career dissatisfaction, argues Schmidt, is the professional’s lack of control over the political component of his or her creative work. Many professionals set out to make a contribution to society and add meaning to their lives. Yet our system of professional education and employment abusively inculcates an acceptance of politically subordinate roles in which professionals typically do not make a significant difference, undermining the creative potential of individuals, organizations and even democracy. Schmidt details the battle one must fight to be an independent thinker and to pursue one’s own social vision in today’s corporate society. He shows how an honest reassessment of what it really means to be a professional employee can be remarkably liberating. After reading this brutally frank book, no one who works for a living will ever think the same way about his or her job. ____________________ Readers write... Engineer and blogger Megan London educator Dee Water plant operator Premed undergraduate Jonathan Armstrong Physics professor Denis Rancourt Math student Zaid Khalil Law student Mireille Gervais Graduate student in South Africa Activist Windy Cooler Recent particle physics PhD Psychotherapist Andrew Pollock Biochemical engineer Brendan Touhey Scientist Peter Hargraves Leadership scholar Ruth Guzley Physics graduate student Physics graduate student Severin Stojanovic Political scientist Emily Hauptmann Former math graduate student Jose Writer Jack Saunders Assistant professor Electrical engineering PhD student Sociologist George Floro _________________ From the book... Preview the book and search inside it. The entire book has been read on the radio, and you can listen to or download the audio files. Radio journalist Lyn Gerry read Disciplined Minds on her program Unwelcome Guests, which is broadcast on a National Public Radio affiliate and several other stations. Listen to programs 176 to 201 in the Unwelcome Guests archive. Photography artist Keyvan Minoukadeh illustrates excerpt from chapter 8 Table of contents Introduction Amateurs and professionals (excerpt from chapter 8) Disillusionment strikes (part of Physics Free Press article quoted in chapter 8) Ideology and professionals (excerpt from chapter 1) Narrowing the political spectrum (excerpt from chapter 8) _________________ About the author... Jeff Schmidt was an editor at Physics Today magazine for 19 years, until he was fired for writing this provocative book. He has a PhD in physics from the University of California, Irvine, and has taught in the United States, Central America and Africa. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he now lives in Washington, D.C. Write the author: jeff@disciplinedminds.com Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. Cloth / 304 pages / April 2000 / ISBN 0-8476-9364-3 Paperback / 304 pages / December 2001 / ISBN 0-7425-1685-7 _________________ The 55-billion page internet archive archive.org has recorded much of the history of the disciplinedminds.com website. Links