Book Talk on “Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left”

Join us for a lively discussion with Eric Heinze, featuring his recently published book Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left.  

In Coming Clean, Eric Heinze examines the notion of wokeness by arguing that the left should use it as an opportunity for self-accountability and internal critique. While wokeness often emphasizes the importance of confronting historical injustices, Heinze asserts that it must also include educating the public about the left’s own support for regimes that damaged and destroyed millions of lives for over a century—Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia, or the Kim dynasty in North Korea. Criticisms of Western wrongdoing are certainly important, yet Heinze explains that leftists have rarely engaged in the kinds of open and public self-scrutiny that they demand from others. Citing examples as different as the Ukraine war, LGBTQ+ people in Cuba, the concept of “hatred,” and the problem of leftwing antisemitism, Heinze explains why and how the left must change its memory politics if it is to claim any ethical high ground. 

Eric Heinze ‘91 is a Professor and Co-founder and Director of the Centre for Law, Democracy, and Society at Queen Mary University of London. In 2022, he served as General Rapporteur on the Criminalisation of Hate Speech for the 21st General Congress of the Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé, held in Asunción, Paraguay. His prior books include The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything (The MIT Press, 2022), Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2016), and The Concept of Injustice (Routledge, 2013). 

Abadir Ibrahim (moderator) is the Associate Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. His current research focuses on African approaches to human rights which studies, among other things, the iteration and practice of human rights as impacted by Africa’s (post)colonial, religious and traditional heritages. 

This event is organized by The Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School and co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Democrats