How did our universities become so left-wing? It started in the 1930s, just after Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. Many academics fled to the United States in search of safety. Of course, seeking safety from a dictator is a noble endeavor. These academics found the American commitment to free speech and liberty appealing. The problem, though, was that some of these academics came from the now-infamous Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School was one of the origin points of the postmodernist philosophy wreaking havoc in America’s universities today.
The importation of these refugee academics was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. They were named the ‘University in Exile.’ These professors were initially employed by the New School for Social Research. The Rockefeller Foundation consulted with the United States State Department, which was in full support of the project. However, the left-wing academics, who we would today classify as Cultural Marxists, were never meant to just stay at one school. The Rockefeller Foundation archives explain that “In the case of a scholar received by the New School, it was not expected that he would remain there permanently; the New School aimed merely to be the springboard for his American adventure.”
The Cultural Marxist academics and professors were spread throughout our country’s universities throughout the 1930s and 40s. They spread their ideas far and wide. Some on the left call this a conspiracy theory, but to this day, the New School for Social Research brags about the project. The New School states that “Its commitment to progressive values, academic freedom, rigorous scholarship, and critical theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School lies at the heart of The New School’s history and draws upon the vital legacy of the University in Exile.”
They also brag about the transformation they have brought about throughout the U.S.: “These leading intellectuals helped transform the social sciences and philosophy in this country.” Removing this entrenched leftist influence will be hard, but it is necessary.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/family/colleges/how-the-rockefeller-foundation-imported-leftist-academics/
Phyllis Schlafly