Critic Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. led the stampede against Out of Step, claiming it was almost paranoiac in its harshness toward Communists. It is strange that the most powerful anti-Communist rhetoric came from avowed liberals, and it is to their discredit that they never converted. Kramer includes such confessions of individualistic mentality and tales of hypocrisy to suggest why the liberal movement has disseminated and to explain why present-day multiculturalism and political correctness are dim shadows of the former, larger vision. Western liberals, in action and in word, jeopardized the future of their own ideology, leaving it to the less capable to try to salvage. Criticism of Twilight of the Intellectuals centers largely on its supposed lack of continuity.
Readers find it difficult to grasp the author's purpose in assembling the book.
Granted, Kramer writes of some quite obscure figures and extremely highbrow art criticism, but that is not to render the work a labyrinth. His objective, though, is to articulate why many well-educated people have never been exposed to certain writers who once had a profound impact on American thought. In doing so, he also successfully discredits both the Old and New Lefts on their lack of honesty with the public and themselves. Underneath the formal topic of Twilight is an implicit mourning for the fate of literature in the Academy. With his subjects Kramer shares this demise, and the author makes a strong case for his thoughts on why this phenomenon may be occurring.