The assumption that, with the Cold War ended, the rest of the world would embrace supposedly universal truths associated with liberal democracy proved an illusion. This book has traced how the ideology of Maoism exploited this illusion, modifying the West's social, economic and political practices and insinuating itself into the politics of everyday life. Western thinkers of a New Left tendency, we conclude, were drawn to Mao's Cultural Revolution, not because it bolstered ideas of liberal enlightenment, but precisely because it contested them so vehemently. Ultimately, Maoist strategic conduct in the West allows us to see how the intolerant manipulation of a liberal propensity to tolerance can achieve cultural confusion and political chaos. Above all, it shows that those New Left ideologists from the 1960s to today, who translated Maoist ideas and practice into a western context were the ultimate facilitators of China's most enduring export: cultural revolution.
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
