Abstract

It would be unfortunate if the American Left judged this book by the first section that catches the eye: “What is to be done?” The three chapters on student protest which this section concludes are ambiguous in several important respects, but to be misled by them would be a disservice to all concerned.

First, Habermas speaks in apparently liberal rhetoric about the healing powers of dialogue, particularly as they appear in that citadel of uncompelled discussion, the modern university. This discussion culminates in an explicit call for a “radical reformism”: “The only way I see to bring about conscious structural change in a social system organized in an authoritarian welfare state is radical reformism. What Marx called critical-revolutionary activity must take this way today” (p. 49).