Cooperating with anti-Communist congressional committees destroyed leftist scholars’ academic standing

Evidence

Wittfogel also introduced a plaintive note into his testimony when he claimed that his scholarly contacts had dried up when he became an avowed anti-Communist. There certainly can be no doubt that his former colleagues at the Institut found his new position anathema, especially because of his personal disclosures about previous political allegiances. They were firmly convinced that his cooperation with the witch hunters went well beyond the one day in front of the McCarran Committee, despite his angry assertions to the contrary. Wherever the truth may lie, Wittfogel became persona non grata to the Frankfurt School from that time on, as he did to many other liberally minded academics in this country. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 857

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader McCarthy-era history and to Wittfogel’s simultaneous career in Chinese Studies; also to the Institute of Pacific Relations affair. — connects to: Racist dismissal of Black scholars helped push Du Bois from academia into activism — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 790

Broader Connections

• Racist dismissal of Black scholars helped push Du Bois from academia into activism #expands (0.78) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 790