Popular Academics

I have read Reza Aslan’s Zealot, and it deserves to be a best seller, although much of it rests on the earlier work of Géza Vermès’ Jesus the Jew. But I challenge his assumption that academics hate popular books and can’t get tenure writing one. I wrote Greek Society 42 years ago. It is still in print, through five editions, and I still get royalties. The year it was published I got tenure at UCSB. Other colleagues from the History department have written best sellers and even had films made from their work. Professor Aslan should not pretend to disparage the “establishment.” He is a certified member of it.