Heresy, Yes—Conspiracy, No

Heresy, Yes—Conspiracy, No was a 283-page anti-communist book by New York University philosophy professor Sidney Hook, which John Day Company, published in May 1953, about conflicts between support for Communism and for academic freedom in America.

Jealously safeguarding this precious principle, the New School stoutly affirms that a member of any political party or group which asserts the right to dictate in matters of science or scientific opinion is not free to teach the truth and is thereby disqualified as a teacher.

Equally, the New School holds that discrimination on grounds of race, religion or country of origin either among teachers or students runs counter to every profession of freedom and has no place in American education.

19, 5 January 1953[7])Hook concludes: The chief evil from which the schools suffer is not communism but community neglect, and the failure to make the common and special needs of the individual personality their supreme concern.

It includes a "sharp indictment" of the American Association of University Professors' Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure for what Fitch calls its "failure to cope realistically with the problem of Communist infiltration."

"[10] In 1997, Christopher Phelps wrote, "Hook was a leading figure in the creation of a repressive, censorious atmosphere in higher education, carried out, naturally, under the guise of cultural freedom."

Hook clearly called for a third of four steps in his process of inquiry, such that prima facie evidence of Communist Party membership should not result in automatic dismissal."