"One of the most original and provocative

 books of the past decade."

 -- John Pilger in New Statesman

"An important description of the work-life

 of professionals."

 -- Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal (2016)

"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)

Times of India

Carta (published in Italian)

Italian State Radio (RealAudio, 2:11)

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Reviews

Education Review

and

The Adjunct Advocate

Teaching Sociology

(American Sociological Association)

Public Integrity

Z Magazine

and

Sex and Guts magazine

Washington City Paper   (text)

Radical Teacher

Processed World (pages 93-94 in pdf)

Texas Observer

AMAPCEO Member News (Canada) (p. 5 in pdf)

Workplace (issue 6.2)

Workplace (issue 4.2)

Business and Society Review

Nature, Society, and Thought

Frontline (India)

New Statesman (England)

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)

20 more reviews are posted at Amazon.com

Agents didn't think anyone would publish DM

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Articles

Centretown News (Ottawa, Canada)

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.

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

Paleontologist Mark Mason

Water plant operator

Premed undergraduate Jonathan Armstrong

Physicist Denis Rancourt

Arts accomplice Christina Martinez

Math student Zaid Khalil

Law student Mireille Gervais

Graduate student in South Africa

Artist Keyvan Minoukadeh

Activist Windy Cooler

Law school graduate Cedric McGee

Entomologist Linda Wiener

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

Artist Garmamie Sideau

Musician and picture framer James Wilson

Political scientist Emily Hauptmann

Former math graduate student Jose

Writer Jack Saunders

Assistant professor

Electrical engineering PhD student

Business professor Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya

Sociologist George Floro

_________________

From the book

Preview the book and search inside it!

eBook version of first 23 pages

Artist Keyvan Minoukadeh uses three excerpts

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)

Quotations selected by St. Drogo's Books

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.

Further detail on some end-of-chapter references

_________________

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 to Jeff at jeff@disciplinedminds.com

_________________

Published in English, Hindi and Korean

English...

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.

Cloth (304 pages, 2000) ISBN 9780847693641

Paperback (2001) ISBN 9780742516854

eBook ISBN 9780742577107

Hindi and English (Indian Subcontinent)...

Banyan Tree, Indore, India

Paperback, Hindi (2012) ISBN 9788192095714

Paperback, English (2012) ISBN 9788192095721

Korean...

Redianmedia Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea

Paperback, Korean (2012) ISBN 9788994340098

_________________

_________________

Look inside the Korean edition (through page 30)

_________________

The 55-billion page internet archive archive.org has recorded much of the history of the disciplinedminds.com website.

_________________

On target

Activists should not trust professionals!

Radical doctor Susan Rosenthal explains why in this pamphlet.

Processed World -- Uppity nonprofessionals critique their assigned work

The Student as Nigger (1969) by Jerry Farber

Z Net -- Insight into United States and world events

MediaLens -- "Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media"

Detroit News report on politically timid professors vs. activist professors in Flint, Michigan, water-lead crisis