Disciplined Minds

I imagine I heard of this book before, but after an e-mail I received today, I am interested in taking a look at it.

This book was written by Jeff Schmidt who used to write for Physics Today but was apparently fired as a result of writing this book.

First, let me quote the wikipedia entry (which I imagine will be expanding a bit in the near future):

Jeff Schmidt is a physicist who worked as an Associate Editor of Physics Today, the magazine of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), for 19 years before he was fired for writing the book Disciplined Minds[1]. Schmidt's firing led to a public campaign involving academics and physicists, the largest number of physicists to ever speak out on a freedom of expression issue. The public campaign in turn led to a legal case, carried by a law firm specializing in civil liberties issues, that produced a favorable settlement for Schmidt, including anti-discrimination policy changes at AIP.

According to the e-mail, "Based upon examples from physics graduate training and beyond, it provocatively critiques workplace hierarchy in general and the politically subordinate role of people hired to do creative work.[2]"

Schmidt ended up taking legal action and AIP recently settled the case; they agreed to shell out a lot of money and make germane public statements.


Reference [2] is the Disciplined Mind home page.