True Gentlemen: The Broken Pledge of America's Fraternities

The film Animal House (1978) has long shaped Americans' view of fraternity members as hard partying but ultimately harmless, nitwits. Yet there is a far more sinister side to "Greek life." This is where Bloomberg News editor Hechinger's book comes in handy. Using the notorious fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) as a case study, the author focuses each chapter on a different facet of the fraternity story. This can make for sobering reading, as Hechinger traces the racist and anti-Semitic legacy of many of today's traditionally white fraternities to the rape culture that pervades these institutions to such an extent that on many campuses, SAE stands for "sexual assault expected." Hechinger travels across the country to interview individuals at places such as the University of Alabama, where the SAE's century-old chapter has yet to "pledge" a black student. Although there are mountains of evidence linking fraternities to an outsized share of sexual assault charges and hazing-related injuries and deaths, college administrators have been ineffective at reining in "problem chapters." As Hechinger demonstrates, this has a lot to do with fraternities' fund-raising clout and lobbying power (including the political action committee FratPAC).