>> it was entirely acceptable as an undergraduate piece of work <<
IBTZ?
I've said the same thing here before and I'm still around. Perhaps this is because I actually read the thesis unlike so many others who have commented on it (apparently including Christopher Hitchens).
The thesis is politically narrow-minded. That may have something to do with the atmosphere of race relations at that particular time at that particular college as well as the fact that it was written by a young inexperienced person. But I didn't find all the grammatical and structural errors that were claimed by people who had not read the thesis.