I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It: Heretical thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom
Norman G Finkelstein, OR Books, £21.99

The title of this expanded edition of I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It gives readers a pretty clear idea of what to expect from this controversial book. Norman Finkelstein is, of course, a challenging figure himself, noted for his publication of The Holocaust Industry in 2000, arguing that the Holocaust was being weaponised to deflect criticisms of the government of Israel. As his friend Noam Chomsky warned him at the time, however courageous it was to pose such a challenge, this would impact on his career prospects in significant ways; which proved no exaggeration. 

Finkelstein subsequently lost his battle for tenure, rendering him effectively unemployable in US academia and, as he himself has described his situation, bitter but undefeated. Yet his views on Israel are far from being readily predictable. He is also opposed to the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s demands, for example, just one illustration of the controversial/contrarian range of his views. 

As the subtitle explains, this expanded edition focuses on his heretical views on identity politics, cancel culture and academic freedom. He is highly critical of identity politics for a start, launching polemical tirades against the ways in which they have been used to undermine class politics. 

While Finkelstein’s criticisms of identity politics are trenchant, he is in no way minimising the importance of addressing racial inequalities, or indeed of addressing other forms of inequalities based around identities. Rather, he points to the importance of connecting anti-racist and anti-capitalist politics, referring to the works of Marx, W E B Du Bois and others on the inter connections between class, capitalism and racism. If the Jobs and Freedom slogan of the 1963 march on Washington had been tweaked so that the demand justice and jobs seized the moment, the nascent coalition in the streets between an anti-racist and anti-capitalist politics could have consolidated around concrete political demands, he argues.

In other words, he continues, the hard kernal of identity politics — which articulates the irreducibly racist aspect of American society — meets the class agenda of the Sanders campaign, Bernie Sanders being one of the politicians that Finkelstein refers to with considerable admiration.

Barack Obama, in contrast, is described as the perfected instrument of identity politics, being merely “the mascot of Wall Street,” according to Cornel West, and “pressing just the buttons to make white people feel good about themselves by feeling good about him,” namely: the acceptable face of a black America who posed no serious threat to the vested interests of the status quo. There are parallels with Finkelstein’s (and others’) subsequent criticisms of the Democratic Party for focusing on identity politics rather than addressing the economic and social problems of the majority of struggling Americans.

Some sections of this book are written in a highly polemical style while others are heavily referenced, appealing to very different audiences, perhaps. The invective with which he criticises Kimberely Crenshaw and Ibram X Kendi stands in sharp contrast with his reflections on the importance of civility, even out of the classroom, in the final section on academic freedom, although the letter from De Paul University, denying him tenure in 2007 actually cited Finkelstein’s own lack of civility as a reason for this decision.  

Despite his use of vitriol, on occasion, Finkelstein himself is clearly committed to balance in academic discourse; the lectern is not a soap box, in his view. The lecturer’s task is to promote questioning rather than to provide answers to complex questions,  within clearly established limits rather than in response to the so-called “enlightened” campus opinion of the day.

At nearly 600 pages this book is long, and too long in my view. The detail overwhelms the arguments in places. And there are chapters that may have little resonance for Morning Star readers, such as those that deal with Kimberle Crenshaw, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin Di Angelo and Ibram X. Kendi. 

That said, there are many stimulating arguments in this book. He offers challenging insights and thought-provoking criticisms of a number of widely accepted assumptions on the left, including the potentially divisive effects of identity politics.  

Given his personal experiences of the cancel culture, he certainly deserves to be listened to on this too, whether he is expressing himself with vitriol or presenting more nuanced views, along with the supporting evidence, on academic freedom.  

A curate’s egg of a book, in summary.