THE STUDENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SOPHOMORIC, NOT THEIR TEACHERS:

Niall Ferguson is a compelling writer, wry and puckish, intellectually curious. He has a knack for converting his deep knowledge of history and finance into narratives the average reader can grasp. There's a generosity and a sense of excitement to his writing that have helped propel him to stardom in the publishing world and on the small screen. But for all his qualities, Ferguson didn't know enough to pause before hitting 'Send.' Instead, by gleefully attempting to crush a coterie of left-wing Stanford University students who were trying to gain influence within his invited speakers series Cardinal Conversations, he threw gasoline on the blazing free speech wars and turned his own, noble-sounding words into ash. Ferguson has vowed to retreat "to [his] beloved study," where presumably he will hunker down, reassess his methods and motives, and even, one hopes, re-emerge a better man.

One of our era's most recognizable defenders of free speech, Ferguson co-founded Cardinal Conversations to foster open debate at Stanford. When it was announced that Charles Murray, author of the infamous 1994 monograph, The Bell Curve, would be speaking last February, several Stanford University campus groups began protesting a free speech initiative that seemed designed to stir up controversy and privilege right-wing voices. Ferguson became "deeply concerned" following an anti-racist rally on campus, and in a spectacularly ironic twist, began plotting with his young acolytes on the steering committee against a progressive student activist named Michael Ocon. Ferguson feared that Ocon would attempt to derail Cardinal Conversations, so he set about ensuring that the student's views wouldn't be heard. He advised the young Republicans that they "should all be allies against O[con]. Whatever your past differences, bury them. Unite against the SJWs." He also recommended they do some 'opposition research' on Ocon in the hope of digging up dirt that could be used to discredit him.

It was a self-inflicted wound, foolish and silly and shameful, and his departure is a loss for historical scholarship.

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