Western Marxism and The Imperial Theory Industry
Rev Left Radio
Breht O'Shea
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Breht is joined by philosopher, author, and cultural critic Gabriel Rockhill to discuss his new book Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? The Intellectual World War: Marxism vs. the Imperial Theory Industry.
Rockhill argues that the Cold War was not only fought with bombs, coups, and sanctions -- but with ideas, institutions and intellectuals. Drawing on extensive archival research, Rockhill shows how U.S. imperial power built a vast apparatus of foundations, universities, media outlets and cultural organizations to shape what kinds of Marxism were allowed to exist in the West.
Rather than simply repressing Marxism, empire promoted a "compatible left"; a version of critical theory and Western Marxism that rejected actually existing socialist struggles and experiments, detached theory from mass struggle, and helped neutralize anti-imperialist politics. Together, they explore the role of the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse, Cold War cultural warfare, and the long shadow this history still casts over today's left.
This episode was recorded in the immediate wake of the U.S.'s invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife, which they discuss at the beginning of the conversation.
Check out Critical Theory Workshop HERE
Follow Rockhill's work on his Substack HERE
----------------------------------------------------
Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio
Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio
Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio. |
| 0:08.6 | Today we have on the episode a guest that I am actually ashamed has not been on Rev Left |
| 0:14.1 | sooner than this. |
| 0:15.3 | I hope to correct that in the future and have him back on many, many more times. |
| 0:18.7 | But the one and only Gabriel Rockhill, who |
| 0:22.0 | if you're at all plugged into left discourse online, you may have heard about him in his book, |
| 0:26.9 | who paid the Pipers of Western Marxism. It's a wonderful, important intervention in the |
| 0:32.8 | history of ideology and ideological counter-revolution and the co-opting of radical revolutionary theory |
| 0:41.8 | within and without academia. |
| 0:44.4 | This is a really important thing to understand, and Professor Rockhill goes into great length |
| 0:50.3 | describing the machinery of how it actually happens. |
| 0:54.2 | It's not conspiratorialism. |
| 0:56.2 | It's not free-floating idealism. |
| 0:57.8 | It's based superstructure analysis as applied to, you know, the theoretical machinations of academia |
| 1:05.0 | and how that spills out into the broader culture and populace and the forces that were |
| 1:10.6 | behind that counter-revolutionary |
| 1:13.1 | struggle on the terrain of ideology. |
| 1:15.6 | So it's a really fascinating book. |
| 1:18.0 | An interview can only scratch the surface of a book. |
| 1:20.6 | I hope the interview, uh, wets your appetite to actually go get the book and wrestle with that |
| 1:25.0 | book, especially if you're in the context of, of organizing this would be a great book to do a book club or, you know, to get together and read |
| 1:31.5 | through together, to just kind of understand the machinations of counterrevolution and all |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Breht O'Shea, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Breht O'Shea and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.