Leonard Janke's Reviews > America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything

The revolution did not run through the streets, Bell concluded, but through the faculty meeting and the seminar room.

When listening to the rhetoric from those on the American left today, does it ever feel like they think we are still living in the 1960s? In this book, Chris Rufo argues that there is a good reason for this. His central thesis is that after the "Revolution of 1968" and the subsequent domestic terror campaigns by groups like the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army failed, its leaders retreated into academia. Despite their violent acts and numerous bombings, these radicals astonishingly almost always avoided imprisonment. They recognized, however, the violence had alienated them from society and was counterproductive. 

Far from being a fatal setback, however, and mirroring Mao's resurgence after his 5,000-mile retreat, the radicals devised a new strategy of a "long march through the institutions." Rufo argues the strategy has been wildly successful, starting in academia but now expanding to capture most of present-day America's important institutions, including corporate America, the federal bureaucracy, and K-12.

Biographies of Key Figures

The book includes brief biographies of some of the key figures of America's radical left, with particular emphasis on

- Herbert Marcuse, a neo-Marxist, head of the Frankfurt School, and "the father of the New Left."
- One of Marcuse's most famous students: Angela Davis
- Eldridge Cleaver, who was the leader of the Black Liberation Army,
- Paulo Freire, a Brazillian Marxist who is generally seen as the most influential figure in modern educational theory, and
- Derrick Bell who is known as the father of critical race theory.  

In the case of Marcuse, Davis, Friere, and Cleaver, Rufo emphasizes their rhetorical and charismatic gifts, their sharp intellects, and their sympathies toward violence. For example, in Marcuse's case, Rufo makes it clear that he directly supported and met with militant groups in the United States and Europe working toward violent revolution. His rhetoric was crafty enough to leave just enough ambiguity as to whether he was calling for violence: at least if you only took his statements in isolation. However, by looking at the overall picture, Rufo clarifies that Marcuse supported violence. 

Derrick Bell, unlike his counterparts, was not a proponent of violence. Rufo underscores Bell's noteworthy accomplishments as a Civil Rights lawyer and founder of CRT, juxtaposing them with his eventual plunge into pessimism and nihilism. Bell's inclination towards dystopian fiction is highlighted, with him envisioning scenarios where white Americans would buy rights to discriminate openly against black people and, in perhaps the most extreme and well-known example, even sold them to extraterrestrials. Particularly striking is Sowell's critique that Bell, feeling outmatched at Harvard, chose to maintain his relevance through outlandish fiction.

The Capture of Academia

Although Rufo's biographies are fascinating, Rufo's recount of the radical capture of America's colleges is equally intriguing. In particular, Rufo emphasizes Marcuse's insights into the need to turn away from violence which, sadly, he realized only after it has already burnt itself out. At this point, Marcuse realized that the key was to capture academia as a base and then expand into the rest of society from there. Remarkably, this aligned perfectly with the fact that most of the 1960s and 1970s radicals, including nearly all members of the Weathermen, were able to avoid prosecution, and many of the most prominent took up academic careers as their next stage in life. 

Among the book's most fascinating information, which is not currently well known, is that it was Marcuse's third wife who created the prototypes for the first DEI programs which were first instituted in academia. Rufo recounts how key components were modeled after the guilt-inducing struggle sessions denouncing whiteness and privilege that were rituals of the Weather Underground.

Davis's preeminence in academia is also detailed, with Rufo, for instance, crediting her for articulating the key notions of intersectionality long before Bell's student Kimberley Crenshaw.

Rufo additionally emphasizes that educational theory was the key focus of the radicals-become-academics. This included both post-secondary and K-12.

Expansion Beyond the University

Rufo details that critical theory, the main thread he sees uniting the radicals turned academics, was not content to remain confined to academia. Given the similarities between publicly funded education and government bureaucracies, Rufo details how the federal bureaucracy put up essentially no resistance to critical theory and DEI. 

The capture of Corporate America is only slightly more complex and occurred in large part through DEI programs. Rufo presents statistics regarding the explosion in critical theory jargon in NYT articles after the Great Financial Crisis. This he attributes to layoffs followed by hiring new graduates thoroughly indoctrinated into the critical theories now generally accepted by universities. Beyond ideological sympathies, Rufo explains how corporations have come to see alignment with critical theory as necessary to the bottom line. For instance, Rufo argues that it is treated as "protection money," or the cost of doing business and avoiding coming in the crosshairs of social justice activism. 

The Book's Strengths

Even with some background in this field and prior knowledge of Rufo's work, I found this book enlightening. It offered fresh insights like Marcuse's shift toward non-violence and institutional infiltration and the early nexus between Critical Race Theorists and Gramsci. Because of the wealth of new information, Rufo's ability to recount fast-paced, engaging stories, and editing the book to the lower end of medium length, I never got bored.

Another great strength of the book is its meticulous endnotes. Since they often lead back to primary sources, this makes it hard to deny things many on the left would like to. 

Specifically, Rufo's notes show that Critical Race Theorists are against free speech; they seek a suspension of property rights, first through a temporary suspension and redistribution, followed by ongoing interventions in the name of affirmative action. Rufo connects this opposition to free speech to Marcuse's writings, where he explicitly discusses a dictatorship of intellectuals who would determine what could be discussed and what could not. For example, free speech would be allowed for Marxists on the left but denied to fascists or even those whose words intellectuals worry could inadvertently promote fascism.

The final strength to mention is Rufo's emphasis on how the modern left operates through psychological manipulation, primarily by inducing unwarranted guilt. Rufo provocatively sees this as a consequence of what he describes as a shift from failed masculine notions of capturing society through violence to more effective but covert and sinister feminine strategies.

The Book Weaknesses

Compared to its strengths, the book's weaknesses are relatively minor. The book does make some minor errors. For instance, it claims that a statue of Lincoln was torn down during the riots of 2020. Although there was a rally that made this seem imminent at one point, it never transpired. There are a few other minor inaccuracies throughout the book, with, unfortunately, probably enough for a pedantic critic predetermined to give the book a bad review a chance to cherry-pick out and make their focus.

More seriously, Rufo's book omits a crucial CRT assertion: that formal equality alone cannot secure actual equality for minorities. He avoids elaborating on the details, although it presents a plausible claim: a person's success generally correlates with parental wealth. Hence, CRT could be correct in suggesting that generational wealth disparity, which resulted from horrific past injustices, might permanently impede black people's advancement. Rufo neither adequately presents nor counters this proposition.

A final weakness from the conclusion is that although the book decries critical theory's inability to produce evidence that it leads to positive results, Rufo fails to address why black people should have hope that they can succeed without critical theory-based policy. Here, Rufo could have done better. He is clearly a fan of Thomas Sowell, who has argued that, through educational reforms, quite the opposite of those envisioned by critical theory, black people can overcome obstacles such as being born into poorer families. Indeed, Sowell gives examples of black people doing this starting immediately after the Civil War.

Summary

Out of all the books I have read since the 2020 riots, Rufo's "America's Cultural Revolution" provides the most concise and well-sourced account of the radical left's influence on present-day America. It is a fast-paced book providing short biographies of the key figures of America's radical left since the 1960s. It discusses how, after violence failed, they captured academia, expanded Marcuse's critical theory, and merged it with other acidic leftist schools of thought. The book then details how leftist radicalism expanded into the federal bureaucracy, corporate America, and K-12. Due to the wealth of new material, the book will fascinate those new to Rufo's thesis, along with those who already consider themselves well-versed.

The book's weaknesses are minor: only enough to make it 4.75 stars instead of 5.0. There are a few relatively minor inaccuracies, although none on crucial points. This is even when Rufo presents what, initially, seem to be claims that those on the left would surely fight hard to deny but will not be able due to his meticulous endnotes. 

The final minor weakness is that the conclusion could contain more specifics. Rufo could have pointed to others, like Sowell, who have solutions to improve black people's lives and avoid the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of critical theory and its underlying nihilism.