How Marxism Shifted from Revolution to Culture

The Cold War’s unseen aftermath: The rise of Cultural Marxism in the USA – How Marxism became mainstream in American universities 

Tokyo, 30^th October 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.

[Series] Trump vs. America’s Elite Universities – part 3  

A Cultural Revolution ‒ A Threat Greater Than the Soviet Union

The Battle Against “Cultural Marxism”

by Toshiyuki Hayakawa (早川 俊行)

See also part 1: Ideological War: Trump Targets Cultural Marxism

See also part 2: Defector: US Campus Culture Reminds Me of NKorea

See also part 4: The Marxist Transformation of Higher Education

See also part 5: Cancel Culture, Cultural Hegemony, Universities

See also part 6: Far-Left Activism in American Higher Education

See also part 7: Exclusive Left-Wing DEI Ideology on Campus

See also part 8: Growing Antisemitism Based on Leftist Ideology

About two weeks before the Berlin Wall fell on 9^th November 1989, a startling article appeared in the New York Times. As the communist regimes of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were heading toward collapse, the paper reported ‒ seemingly against the tide of global history ‒ that “Marxism has become mainstream at American universities.”

Felicity Barringer, then a Moscow correspondent for the paper, interviewed more than ten American university professors and concluded that Marxists had “completed their transformation” within universities from “heretics” to “the mainstream”. She argued that “for students of class struggle, once regarded as subversives, this could be seen as a success story.”

With the end of the Cold War, a widespread perception took hold that communism had been defeated, exemplified by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s claim in The End of History that liberal democracy represented the ultimate endpoint of humanity’s ideological evolution.

Yet behind the scenes, Marxists in the United States were establishing a dominant position within universities. Considering the extreme leftward tilt of today’s universities, it is clear that Barringer’s analysis more than 30 years ago was correct.

There are two major roots behind the spread of so-called “cultural Marxism” in American universities. One is Germany’s Frankfurt School, discussed in part 2 of this series. Universities in the United States accepted thinkers from this school who had fled Nazi persecution and emigrated to America. Representative figures include Max Horkheimer, a central figure of the school, and Herbert Marcuse, who was known in the 1960s as the “father of the New Left”.

The other root is the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci. Imprisoned by Mussolini, Gramsci died at the young age of 46. His prison writings were later compiled into the famous Prison Notebooks. More than 30 years after his death, an English edition was published in 1971, exerting a profound influence on Marxists in the United States.

Although the paths through which these ideas spread differed, they share a common underlying worldview. That worldview holds that Marx’s theory ‒ that a communist revolution would occur in advanced capitalist countries ‒ failed to materialize because it was obstructed by faith in God rooted in Christianity, love of family, and loyalty to the nation. Based on this premise, they seek to bring about revolution not through the violent action of workers advocated by Marx, but by dismantling culture and values themselves.

Patrick J. Buchanan, a leading figure among American conservatives, explained the revolutionary strategy of cultural Marxists as follows in his bestselling 2000s book The Death of the West:

“To old Marxists, the enemy was capitalism; to new Marxists, the enemy was Western culture. To old Marxists, the path to power was the violent overthrow of the government; to new Marxists, violence was unnecessary and what was required was patient, prolonged labor.” [Quoted from English version]

Buchanan writes that the essential precondition for victory is that Western people abandon the Christian spirit. This can only be achieved once cultural and educational institutions are firmly in the hands of reformers. First, control the culture, and the state will collapse without effort.

Although the United States won the Cold War against the Soviet Union, it can be said that Marxism has changed its form and now poses an even more troublesome threat ‒ one that corrodes the nation from within.

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a major American think tank, stated unequivocally in a 2022 report:

“[…] cultural Marxism today presents a far more serious and existential threat to the United States than did Soviet communism.”

See also part 1: Ideological War: Trump Targets Cultural Marxism

See also part 2: Defector: US Campus Culture Reminds Me of NKorea

See also part 4: The Marxist Transformation of Higher Education

See also part 5: Cancel Culture, Cultural Hegemony, Universities

See also part 6: Far-Left Activism in American Higher Education

See also part 7: Exclusive Left-Wing DEI Ideology on Campus

See also part 8: Growing Antisemitism Based on Leftist Ideology

See also When Good Intentions Serve Harmful Causes

Featured image above: President Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan with Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa Gorbacheva during a trip to Switzerland at the Geneva Summit and their arrival for dinner at the Soviet Mission, 19th November 1985. Photo: Collection: White House Photographic Collection, 1/20/1981 – 1/20/1989. Public domain image

Related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Japan Following the Way of China

Also related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Warning of Threat from CCP Fearing Korean Unity

And also related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Japan’s Dissolution Case Echoes China’s Playbook

Also related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Communists of China Exploiting Assassination

And also related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: “Lawyers Lying and Shaming Japan” for 50 Years

More, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Lawfare: State Uses Legal System in War on Faith

Also related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Media/Legal Expert: Communism Behind Persecution

And more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Militant Lawyers Dictate Government Policy

And more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Media Helping Terrorist Reach His Goal

Related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Kishida Administration Giving in to Terrorism

And more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: 12 Religious Freedom NGOs Denouncing Japan

Yet more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Japanese Communists’ Final War

Still more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Political and Social Activism behind Oppression

And yet more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Opposition Inciting Regime to Excessive Steps

And still more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Journalist Reveals Ugly Leftwing Conspiracy

And even more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Gingrich: Kishida Joining Communist Campaign

Yet more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: The 3 Enemies of Religious Liberty

Still more, related to the rise of Cultural Marxism: Lawyer Exposes Dirty Leftwing Plot

And yet more, related to the rise of the cultural left: Inhuman Government-Supported Mass Deprogramming

Yet more, related to the rise of the cultural left: State and Media Creating “Today’s Non-Citizens”

Still more, related to the rise of the cultural left: Japan Criticized for Glaring Rights Violations

And still more, related to the rise of the cultural left: Bias: No Right to Respond for Religious Minority

And even more, related to the rise of the cultural left: Collusion to Rob Minority of Its Rights

And still more, related to the rise of the cultural left: New Admission by Top Japanese Communist

And yet more, related to the rise of the cultural left: Two European Scholars Warning Japan