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Springtime for Snowflakes: 'Social Justice' and Its Postmodern Parentage Paperback – August 1, 2018
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Springtime for Snowflakes: 'Social Justice' and Its Postmodern Parentage is a daring and candid memoir. NYU Professor Michael Rectenwald - the notorious @AntiPCNYUProf - illuminates the obscurity of postmodern theory to track down the ideas and beliefs that spawned the contemporary social justice creed and movement. In fast-paced creative non-fiction, Rectenwald begins by recounting how his Twitter capers and media exposure met with the swift and punitive response of NYU administrators and fellow faculty members. The author explains his evolving political perspective and his growing consternation with social justice developments while panning the treatment he received from academic colleagues and the political left.
The memoir is the story of an education, a debriefing, as well as an entertaining and sometimes humorous romp through academia and a few corners of the author s personal life. The memoir includes early autobiographical material to provide context for Rectenwald s academic, political, and personal development and even surprises with an account of his apprenticeship, at age nineteen, with the poet Allen Ginsberg.
Unlike many examinations of postmodern theory, Springtime for Snowflakes is a first-person, insider narrative. Likening his testimony to that of an anthropologist who has gone native and returned, the author recalls his graduate education in English departments and his academic career thereafter. In his graduate studies in English and Literary and Cultural Theory/Studies, the author explains, he absorbed the tenets of Marxism, the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, as well as various esoteric postmodern theories. He connects ideas gleaned there to manifestations in social justice to explain the otherwise inexplicable beliefs and rituals of this religious creed. Altogether, the narrative works to demystify social justice as well as Rectenwald s revolt against it.
Proponents of contemporary social justice will find much to hate and opponents much to love in this uncompromising indictment. But social justice advocates should not dismiss this enlightening look into the background of social justice and one of its fiercest critics. This short testimonial could very well convince some to reconsider their approach. For others, Springtime for Snowflakes should clear up much confusion regarding this bewildering contemporary development.
The book provides a clear and balanced suggestion for unraveling the tangled twine of social justice ideology that runs through North American educational, corporate, media, and state institutions. Never soft-peddling its criticism, however, Springtime for Snowflakes delivers on the promise of the title by also including appendices that collect Dr. Rectenwald s saltiest tweets and Facebook statuses.
- Print length176 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNew English Review Press
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2018
- Dimensions6 x 0.6 x 8.9 inches
- ISBN-101943003181
- ISBN-13978-1943003181
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Editorial Reviews
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Praise for Springtime for Snowflakes: Social Justice and Its Postmodern Parentage, by Michael Rectenwald
Michael Rectenwald...is really what you might call a philosophical whistle blower.
Brendan Malone, Leftfoot Media
Springtime for Snowflakes is much more than just a memoir of Rectenwald s experiences at the hands of postmodern inquisitors. It s a history of postmodern thinking, a survey of the movement s prominent thinkers, summaries of their main ideas, trenchant analyses of those ideas, a summing up of the movement s current thinking, and a critique... Rectenwald s grasp of postmodern thinking is wide and deep, which makes his critique all the more devastating.
Stephen Messenger, Areo
[I]f more academics find the courage to demonstrate an honest, fiercely independent intellect like the author s, then perhaps higher education in North America could begin to be salvaged.
Mark Tapson, Frontpage Mag
The question is, has he lived up to his declared purpose that we read in a tweet: It is not enough to merely dismiss postmodernism. [It] must be explained, analyzed, and demonstrated to be mistaken . . . One must locate its manifestations in the culture . . . Finally one works to extirpate it. The answer, resoundingly, is, Yes, he has, accessibly, effectively, authentically, which is why this book matters.
James Como, New English Review Press
I really like books with short chapters! You will really like this book too. So will any student you give it to: it will serve as a coat of armor.
Jameson Campaigne, On Point Magazine
In the university echo-chamber, scholars often go down intellectual rabbit holes. They invest their energies into dead-end ideologies. An escape doesn t usually happen without a crisis developing. For intellectuals, just like ordinary folks, much of life is fortuitous. I think, to some extent, that s true for Professor Michael Rectenwald. His obvious intelligence took him down paths that lead to madness, but he did finally escape. This book shows that journey, and it does it with insights and good humor through his extended essay, in addition to the enjoyable excerpted tweets and Facebook postings he has authored. Let s hope his courage will persevere and springtime will arrive.
George Wick, LewRockwell.com
In showing us that postmodernism and social justice warrior culture are absurd at best and dangerous at worst, Rectenwald has told the truth. And in this postmodern age, that truth telling is more important than ever.
Douglas Texter, Douglas Texter s Higher Education Blog
Michael Rectenwald s new book offers up passionate intellectual debate in a climate where the discursive righteousness, sexuality, sex, skin color, and feelings of the speaker too often matter more than the thoughts espoused. It is a portrait of the contemporary scene of academic freedom, which is anything but free, and even less academic.
Julian Vigo, Public Discourse
This fiercely honest memoir will upset many people. Those who just attack its author over it (whether or not they've actually read it) will thereby reconfirm his point: that 'social justice,' as now preached and practiced on most campuses (and not just there) in the United States, is not a legacy of earlier mass movements for (real) social justice, but a religious creed with an effectively totalitarian agenda, birthed in the vast hothouse of postmodern theory. Here's hoping that this book will start real arguments, whether they elaborate its thesis, or modify it, or whatever else it takes to drive the counter-movement that all of us so very badly need.
Mark Crispin Miller, NYU Professor of Media, Culture & Communication. Author of Boxed In: The Culture of TV, The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder, and Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform.
This book may be the first of its kind--an academic's 'tell all' of the politicization and collapse of the American Academy. Once an Allen Ginsberg acolyte and leftist fellow traveler, Rectenwald exposes the intellectual origins and fundamental flaws of postmodernism, social justice, identity politics, and many other theories and ideologies of the modern left. Springtime for Snowflakes is the first direct challenge to the world of leftist deconstructionism in which safe spaces are everywhere and intellectualism and learning are slaves to rigid ideology, partisanship, and intolerance to alternative views.
Daniel L. Mallock, Author of Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and a World of Revolution
--New English ReviewAbout the Author
Michael was a Professor of Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies at NYU from 2008 to 2019. He also taught at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Case Western Reserve University. His scholarly and academic essays have appeared in The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Academic Questions, Endeavour, The British Journal for the History of Science, College Composition and Communication, International Philosophical Quarterly, the De Gruyter anthologies Organized Secularism in the United States and Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age, and the Cambridge University Press anthology George Eliot in Context, among others (see the Academic Scholarship page). He holds a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master's in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh.
Michael has appeared on major network political talk shows: Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox & Friends, Fox & Friends First, Varney & Company, The Ingraham Angle, Unfiltered with Dan Bongino, and The Glenn Beck Show, among others.
Product details
- Publisher : New English Review Press (August 1, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 176 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1943003181
- ISBN-13 : 978-1943003181
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.6 x 8.9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,142,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #919 in Censorship & Politics
- #1,743 in Communism & Socialism (Books)
- #33,115 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Dr. Michael Rectenwald is the author of twelve books, including The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda (Jan. 2023); Thought Criminal (Dec. 2020); Beyond Woke (May 2020); Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom (Sept. 2019); Springtime for Snowflakes: “Social Justice” and Its Postmodern Parentage (an academic’s memoir, 2018); Nineteenth-Century British Secularism: Science, Religion and Literature (2016); Academic Writing, Real World Topics (2015, Concise Edition 2016); Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age (2015); Breach (Collected Poems, 2013); The Thief and Other Stories (2013); and The Eros of the Baby-Boom Eras (1991).
Michael was a Professor of Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies at NYU from 2008 to 2019. He also taught at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Case Western Reserve University. His scholarly and academic essays have appeared in The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Academic Questions, Endeavour, The British Journal for the History of Science, College Composition and Communication, International Philosophical Quarterly, the De Gruyter anthologies Organized Secularism in the United States and Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age, and the Cambridge University Press anthology George Eliot in Context, among others (see the Academic Scholarship page). He holds a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master's in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh.
Michael’s writing for general audiences has appeared on The Mises Institute Wire, The Epoch Times, RT.com, Campus Reform, The New English Review, The International Business Times, The American Conservative, Quillette, The Washington Post, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, LotusEaters.com, Chronicles Magazine, and others.
Michael has appeared on major network political talk shows (Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox & Friends, Fox & Friends First, Varney & Company, The Ingraham Angle, Unfiltered with Dan Bongino, The Glenn Beck Show), on syndicated radio shows (Coast to Coast AM, Glenn Beck, The Larry Elder Show, and many others), on The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders series, and on numerous podcasts (The Tom Woods Show, The Leighton Smith Podcast, Steel-on-Steel, The Carl Jackson Podcast, and many others). (See “Interviews” on the Media page.)
Professor Michael Rectenwald has spoken to audiences large and small in many venues: The New York Metropolitan Republican Club (five talks); The Mises Institute (The Austrian Economics Research Conference Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, The Libertarian Scholars Conference Opening Lecture, the Ron Paul Symposium); The NYU Republican Club; the New York Ex-Liberals Group; Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business; The Leadership Institute (several talks); Turning Point USA (several talks); Grove City College; Hillsdale College (several lectures); Regent University; The Austrian Student Scholars Conference Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture; The Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party (two talks); The Common Sense Society; The Conservative Opportunity Society (a U.S. Congressional caucus); the Republican Spouses Club; the Conservatives and Libertarians at Microsoft (CLAMS) group; American Freedom Alliance; Liberty Speaks; and others. Please write to Michael@MichaelRectenwald.com for fees and availability.
A former Marxist, Professor Rectenwald is a champion of liberty and opposes all forms of totalitarianism and political authoritarianism, including socialism-communism, “social justice,” fascism, political correctness, and “woke” ideology.
Michael's website is MichaelRectenwald.com.
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Customers find the book very informative, insightful, and fascinating. They also describe it as well-written and concise. Readers mention it's an excellent memoir and critique that traces the philosophical underpinnings of the SJW movement.
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Customers find the book very informative and insightful. They appreciate its excellent analysis and good points. Readers also mention the book is cerebral and thorough.
"Springtime is a concise, information-packed primer on the modern sociopathy known as Social Justice, especially as this anti-intellectual, super-..." Read more
"...All in all, an informative book about where academic has gone but should not go. The Fox news section titled college craziness covers this well." Read more
"...Chapter 6 on theory is quite illuminating and gave me resources, names and publications to do more study, especially in epistemological aspects of..." Read more
"This book made some good points. It was hard to keep track of the flow presented in this book...." Read more
Customers find the book well worth reading, fascinating, and enjoyable. They say it's an excellent memoir and critique that traces the philosophical underpinnings of the SJW movement.
"I enjoyed reading the book. It gives first hand information from someone who lives and works in academia...." Read more
"...Written in a down-to-earth, enjoyable manner. You will find yourself laughing out loud at times and rolling your eyes at others...." Read more
"Interesting read. One liberal insider's view as to how academia has devolved into the current progressive morass...." Read more
"An excellent memoir and critique that traces the philosophical underpinnings of the SJW movement in American acedemia, told by an ex-Marxist who was..." Read more
Customers find the writing style well-written and concise. They also say it's an information-packed primer on modern life.
"Springtime is a concise, information-packed primer on the modern sociopathy known as Social Justice, especially as this anti-intellectual, super-..." Read more
"...Written in a down-to-earth, enjoyable manner. You will find yourself laughing out loud at times and rolling your eyes at others...." Read more
"First, I got the Audible version and the reader's style is choppy in the extreme, sometimes (often) with pauses every three words...." Read more
"Wonderfully written and thoughtful." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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Dr. Rectenwald does an excellent job of giving the reader a crash course on the pathogenesis of Social Justice, locating its modern roots in the notorious Frankfurt School, a haven for German Jewish radicals that resuscitated and then re-invented traditional Marxism during the 1920s and 30s. Dr. Rectenwald goes on to observe how modern campus “safe spaces” are traceable to similar retreats created by gay liberationists and feminists during the 1960s, and how today’s “privilege checking” and “call out” shaming events were common occurrences during Mao’s devastating, 10 year-long Cultural Revolution.
Springtime takes a close look at Social Justice’s procreator, i.e., the intellectually debilitating philosophy known as postmodernism, which makes the self-executing claim that all claims about truth and reality are inherently subjective, indeed, mere linguistic constructs, and therefore unreliable, of limited use; a research project whose goal is to render useless any and every episteme. Rectenwald believes this exceedingly popular, exceedingly cynical genus of intellectual nihilism combined with traditional Neo-Marxist grievance-mongering to give birth to the recent Social Justice movement, which is based on arbitrary and often imaginary perceptions of group identity as well as real or imagined victimization narratives. Because its principles, tenets, and goals are just as inherently incoherent, unrealistic, and self-defeating as postmodernism, to survive as a creed and as a political movement Social Justice must stomp to death any and every competing counter-narrative, especially those steeped in logic and/or empirical reality. Like fully-indoctrinated religious fanatics, Social Justice Warriors find it impossible to take seriously points of view that challenge their own, and like religious maniacs view their ideological opponents as not just mistaken but evil.
Snowflakes horrifies its readers by documenting how quickly and completely the North American college campus—not long ago a proud bastion of unfettered inquiry and free speech—has been hijacked by SJWs and become, for all intents and purposes, a tax-payer funded safe space for self-righteous, mindless, and utterly intolerant political and cultural zealots.
Dr. Rectenwald has done a fine job of diagnosing and describing the effects of the disease. His prescription for curing the sociopathy, “post-secularism,” an approach to academic philosophy that if agreed upon would reduce Social Justice to just one of many political persuasions/options, at this writing seems like wishful thinking. Social Justice is in fact the long dreaded Zombie Apocalypse, and you don’t invite flesh-eating zombies to take their seat at the polity alongside the well-behaved, and rational.
After being in the academic world for awhile, he saw the conflict between restricting speech, debate, and general exchange of ideas promoted by his colleagues and students and the broader concept of a liberal education.
Michael Rectenwald struck back by lampooning some of the more egregious violations under an anonymous nom de plume.
Alas, he succumbed to the belief that other people would be willing to consider the pros and cons of their memes and ideas.
No such luck.
Michael Rectenwald was drummed out of academia by the very people that he had aided for two decades.
He spent a considerable time in earnest self-reflection after that. He had been told, no convinced by colleagues that the movements he willing supported for so long were all about respect and love.
What went wrong? What was really behind it all? How could people espousing these notions of love and respect react in such hateful and violent ways.
Michael Rectenwald traces the origins of the current movement back to violent, intolerant, and ugly revolutions in the past in a very thorough way all with appropriate provenances.
Michael Rectenwald realized then that much of the current liberal movement in US universities and colleges is not a logical, intellectual movement at all. It needs to be properly characterized as a religion, something that people follow with faith.
Different religions react differently to being questioned. Jewish and Christian scholars have questioned their beliefs throughout the ages, and that intellectual curiosity led to the renaissance in the West and the entire scientific revolution.
Other religions are more fanatical and react violently to any questions about their teachings. Michael Rectenwald gives a massive amount of evidence that political correctness, safe spaces, and generally limiting debate on branded progressive topics falls into the violent, irrational response space.
Whether you are a progressive, a conservative, or just a concerned citizen of the world, you need to read, re-read, and understand this book.
Top reviews from other countries
Although the title of the book suggests it is relatively light and airy, this is not the case. Some of the theoretical Pomo concepts described in the later chapters take careful reading to grasp but being a Professor of English, the author has an excellent command of language and does a great job. The last part of the book are pages and pages of the authors best twitter and facebook posts as 'antipcnyuprof'. They are a great source of pithy and ironic, often funny quotes mocking SJWs and other aspects of hard left ideology - great ammunition if you anticipate a confrontation with anyone from the nutty edge of the left.
This book stands amongst the 'must-reads' if you are interested in modern political trends in the west, Highly recommended.
The prose is what one would expect from an English professor: sophisticated and full of syntax, but not so much that it blocks the flow of his narrative.
I ding it one star mostly because the book feels like it would have benefited from a bit of time for the author to allow the book to take proper form and flesh out some of his analysis with greater context and exploration of ideas. It could have been a truly important work, had he been able to do that. As it stands, it is the best primer I can think of for those looking to understand just how campuses got to this point, and to understand the enemy territory with a guide who is a native and speaks the language.






