<P> The contemporary usage of the term emerged from conservative criticism of the New Left in the late Twentieth Century . The phrase was widely used in the debate about Allan Bloom 's 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind , and gained further currency in response to Roger Kimball 's Tenured Radicals ( 1990 ) , and conservative author Dinesh D'Souza's 1991 book Illiberal Education , in which he condemned what he saw as liberal efforts to advance self - victimization and multiculturalism through language , affirmative action , and changes to the content of school and university curricula . The term was also the subject of articles in The New York Times and other media throughout the 1990s . </P>
where did the phrase politically correct come from
the debate about Allan Bloom 's 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind in response to Roger Kimball 's Tenured Radicals ( 1990 ) conservative author Dinesh D'Souza's 1991 book Illiberal Education