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against racism, both in the
1930S
and continuing through to the post–
war period.
At the same time, he records his autobiographical development as an
"anti -Red diaper baby, " which generated his strong disagreement with
the communist Left because of its blind support for the Soviet Union
during its totalitarian and imperial phases. With the demise of the Soviet
Union, however, Rorty supports the inclusion of the residual communist
Left in a grand coalition which is the necessary vehicle for the return to
power of the ideas of the reformist Left.
For Rorty, the economic approach of the Old Left was fundamentally
justified since its priority value was equality. Even if its programs for the
nationalization of agriculture and industry have not been successful, its
prescriptions for redistribution should be pursued. Thus, Rorty retains
some portion of Marxist economic theory as viable. He writes: "Had
Kerensky managed to ship Lenin back to Zurich, Marx would still have
been honored as a brilliant political economist who foresaw how the
rich would use industrialization to immiserate the poor." Consistent
with this interpretation of economic development, the policies of his
envisaged coalition of the reformist Left would remain continuous with
those of the Old Left: redistribution of wealth as the principle strategy
for realizing economic well-being and social justice for all classes of
American society.
At the same time, Rorty charges much of the Old Left, even though
it was comprised of diverse progressive socialist and religious radical
groups as well as Marxist parries, with the continuation of an outdated
belief in the Marxist philosophy of history. Rorty argues for the repudi–
ation of Marxism by the reformist Left on the ground that the Marxist
"philosophy of history" should be viewed "like Herbert Spencer's, a
nineteenth-century curiosity."
Rorty's survey of the varieties of leftist experience in America uncov–
ers a dilemma. On the one hand, his support of the Left's positions leads
him to accept their negative descriptions of the history of the United
States as that of an exploitative capitalist structure at home, projecting
imperial aggression abroad. On the other hand, his advocacy of a
reformist Left requires an attitude of pride in America and hope in its
institutional perfectibility. It is questionable whether Rorty ever resolves
this dilemma, although one approach to its resolution is implicit in the
title of this book: "Achieving Our Country." Rorty attributes the phrase
to a distinction advanced by James Baldwin. For Baldwin, while the
American past was judged to be "unforgivable," this judgment was not
to exclude a hope for participation in "achieving our country." For
