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The War on Critical Race Theory: Or, The Remaking of Racism
“Critical Race Theory” is consuming conservative America. The mounting attacks on a once-obscure legal theory are upending public schooling, legislating censorship, driving elections, and cleaving communities.
In this much-needed response, renowned scholar David Theo Goldberg cuts to the heart of the claims expressed in these attacks. He punctures the demonization of Critical Race Theory, uncovering who is orchestrating it, funding the assault, and eagerly distributing the message. The book richly illustrates the enduring nature of structural racism, even as a conservative insistence on colorblindness serves to silence the possibility of doing anything about it. Crucially, Goldberg exposes the political aims and effects of the vitriolic attacks. The upshot of CRT’s targeting, he argues, has been to unleash racisms anew and to stymie any attempt to fight them, all with the aim of protecting white minority rule.
In this much-needed response, renowned scholar David Theo Goldberg cuts to the heart of the claims expressed in these attacks. He punctures the demonization of Critical Race Theory, uncovering who is orchestrating it, funding the assault, and eagerly distributing the message. The book richly illustrates the enduring nature of structural racism, even as a conservative insistence on colorblindness serves to silence the possibility of doing anything about it. Crucially, Goldberg exposes the political aims and effects of the vitriolic attacks. The upshot of CRT’s targeting, he argues, has been to unleash racisms anew and to stymie any attempt to fight them, all with the aim of protecting white minority rule.
174 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
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About the author
David Theo Goldberg
30 books18 followers*Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute, the University of California system-wide research facility for the human sciences and theoretical research in the arts.
*Professor of Comparative Literature and of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, where he is a Fellow of the UCI Critical Theory Institute
*Professor of Comparative Literature and of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, where he is a Fellow of the UCI Critical Theory Institute
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 25, 2025
Startling lack of Satanic Panic mentions.
May 22, 2024
This book is spectacular. Goldberg is a world class scholar on politics and race. The fact that he has to address the perverted propagandist minds of Christopher Rufo, James Lindsay, Mark Levin, Donald Trump and the rest of the bullshit fabrication brigade is an obnoxious fact on our state of reality. This cluster of imbeciles backed by big conservative money from Hillsdale, Heritage, and the Manhattan Institute are responsible for catalyzing a fear based reemergence of institutionalized racism. Goldberg is thorough, clear, practical and constructive in his assessment of this era of cultural birdshit stuck on our collective windshield. That sentence almost makes me sound more optimistic than I am, to me these clowns understand something more fundamental about America than the rest of us: it’s genocidally racist and deceptive about it. Nevetheless, Goldberg is excellent and he wrote the book we needed to wrap our minds around this insanity.
December 4, 2024
This is a great book for those only superficially aware of Critical Race Theory. For those of us who have studied Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Patricia Williams, and for those of us who have read newspapers over the last eight years and are familiar with the far right's war on CRT, or some strange apparition thereof, there's nothing particularly new or groundbreaking in this book. However, that doesn't negate the importance of this work, even for the sake of posterity. I like the length, and I like what Goldberg has done with this book. In my circles, I have argued exactly the kinds of arguments presented in this work.
January 2, 2026
David Theo Goldberg’s The War on Critical Race Theory addresses a genuinely urgent and crucial contemporary issue: the politically motivated backlash against the academic framework known as Critical Race Theory (CRT). Unfortunately, despite the importance of its subject matter, this book is an unmitigated disappointment, earning the lowest possible rating. It is a book that manages to both infuriate and confuse, ultimately failing the very cause it seeks to defend.
Incoherence and Inaccessibility, the book's primary failure is its utter lack of clarity and narrative cohesion. Instead of offering a coherent analysis of the anti-CRT movement or a clear explanation of what CRT actually is for the general reader, Goldberg delivers an impenetrable wall of dense, academic jargon and overly complex prose. The reader, particularly one who isn't already deeply steeped in advanced critical theory, is left struggling to distinguish the author's argument from the theoretical scaffolding. The book is poorly organized and repetitive, often circling back to the same points without adding meaningful analysis or development.
Furthermore, Goldberg's tone is relentlessly condescending and dismissive. The book seems less interested in engaging with the nature of the anti-CRT attack and more interested in performing intellectual superiority. This approach does a major disservice to the topic, as it alienates the potential audience that most needs a clear, persuasive defense of academic freedom and anti-racist history.
A Failed Opportunity, the War on Critical Race Theory had the opportunity to be a powerful and essential counter-argument against a damaging political campaign. Instead, it is a misguided and poorly executed tract that succeeds only in making the subject seem more esoteric and inaccessible than it actually is. It is an intellectual misfire that wastes a vital opportunity, and for that, it earns a resounding 1 out of 5 stars. Avoid this book if you are looking for clarity, persuasive argument, or a helpful guide to understanding this critical contemporary debate.
Incoherence and Inaccessibility, the book's primary failure is its utter lack of clarity and narrative cohesion. Instead of offering a coherent analysis of the anti-CRT movement or a clear explanation of what CRT actually is for the general reader, Goldberg delivers an impenetrable wall of dense, academic jargon and overly complex prose. The reader, particularly one who isn't already deeply steeped in advanced critical theory, is left struggling to distinguish the author's argument from the theoretical scaffolding. The book is poorly organized and repetitive, often circling back to the same points without adding meaningful analysis or development.
Furthermore, Goldberg's tone is relentlessly condescending and dismissive. The book seems less interested in engaging with the nature of the anti-CRT attack and more interested in performing intellectual superiority. This approach does a major disservice to the topic, as it alienates the potential audience that most needs a clear, persuasive defense of academic freedom and anti-racist history.
A Failed Opportunity, the War on Critical Race Theory had the opportunity to be a powerful and essential counter-argument against a damaging political campaign. Instead, it is a misguided and poorly executed tract that succeeds only in making the subject seem more esoteric and inaccessible than it actually is. It is an intellectual misfire that wastes a vital opportunity, and for that, it earns a resounding 1 out of 5 stars. Avoid this book if you are looking for clarity, persuasive argument, or a helpful guide to understanding this critical contemporary debate.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews