This collection assembles some of Herbert Marcuse’s most important work and presents for the first time his responses to and development of classic Marxist approaches to revolution and utopia, as well as his own theoretical and political perspectives.
This sixth and final volume of Marcuse's collected papers shows Marcuse’s rejection of the prevailing twentieth-century Marxist theory and socialist practice - which he saw as inadequate for a thorough critique of Western and Soviet bureaucracy - and the development of his revolutionary thought towards a critique of the consumer society. Marcuse's later philosophical perspectives on technology, ecology, and human emancipation sat at odds with many of the classic tenets of Marx’s materialist dialectic which placed the working class as the central agent of change in capitalist societies. As the material from this volume shows, Marcuse was not only a theorist of Marxist thought and practice in the twentieth century, but also proves to be an essential thinker for understanding the neoliberal phase of capitalism and resistance in the twenty-first century.
A comprehensive introduction by Douglas Kellner and Clayton Pierce places Marcuse’s philosophy in the context of his engagement with the main currents of twentieth century philosophy while also providing important analyses of his anticipatory theorization of capitalist development through a neoliberal restructuring of society. The volume concludes with an afterword by Peter Marcuse.
Table of Contents:
Introduction Douglas Kellner and Clayton Pierce Part 1: Studies in Marxism 1. Review of Karl Volander: Karl Marx - Sein Leben und Sein Werk 2. Recent literature on Communism 3. Dialectics and Logic Since the War 4. 1954 Afterword to Reason and Revolution 5. Review of George Lichtheim: Marxism 6. Epilogue to the New German Edition of The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon 7. The Concept of Negation in the Dialectic 8. History of Dialectics 9. Can we speak of a repression, or system of repression, specific to the USA? 10. The Relationship of Hegel to Marx Part 2: Marxian Interventions 11. Herbert Marcuse speaking at Cuba protest meeting, Brandeis University, May 3 1961 12. The Emancipation of Women in a Repressive Society 13. Socialism in the Developed Countries 14. Socialist Humanism? 15. The Obsolescence of Marxism 16. Revolutionary Subject and Self-government 17. The Realm of Freedom and the Realm of Necessity 18. The Realm of Freedom and the Realm of Necessity. A Reconsideration 19. Re-examination of the Concept of revolution 20. Angela Davis and Herbert Marcuse: KPIX Newsclips transcription of Angela Davis/Herbert Marcuse at Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, October 24, 1969 21. Prof. Herbert Marcuse speaking at a rally for Angela Davis, Berkeley, October 24 1969 (full transcript) 22. Herbert Marcuse, NBC, January 31, 1971, On Angela Davis Part 3: Lectures and Interviews on Marxism, Revolution and the Contemporary Moment 23. Obsolescence of Socialism? 24. Professors as State Regents 25. Herbert Marcuse: Philosopher of the New Left 26. Varieties of Humanism: Herbert Marcuse talks with Harvey Wheeler 27. Revolution 1969: Discussion with Henrich von Nussbaum 28. ACLU Conference presentation on civil liberties, May 21 1969, and Marcuse letter on Civil Liberties 29. Can Communism be Liberal? 30. Marx and Para-Marx on capitalist Contradictions Part 4: Letters, Testimonies, and Responses to Critics 31. Letter to Max Horkheimer, September 9 1942 32. Correspondence with Raya Dunayevskaya 33. Fromm, Lowenthal, Adorno? 34. Preface to The Democratic and the Authoritarian State 35. Soviet theory and practice 36. Letter to Karel Kosik, March 22 1963 37. On Paul Baran 38. On Changing the World: A Reply to Karl Miller 39. Reply to my Critics, Guardian, May 1968 40. Letter by Martin Peretz on Herbert Marcuse, September 10 1968 41. A Letter, Neues Forum, April 1970 42. On Henry Kissinger 43. Letters to Rudi Dutschke, April 11 1970, April 16 1971, and February 24 1973 Part 5: Marxism and Revolution in an Era of Counterrevolution: Marcuse in the 1970s 44. Marxism and the New Humanity: An Unfinished Revolution 45. An Interview with Herbert Marcuse, April 1978 46. The Reification of the Proletariat 47. Protosocialism and Late Capitalism: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis Based on Bahro's Analysis 48. Radical Change, Lecture at Muir College, April 23 1979 Afterword: Reflections on Herbert Marcuse and Marxism Peter Marcuse. Index
About the Author :
Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) is an internationally renowned philosopher, social activist and theorist, and member of the Frankfurt School. He has been remembered as one of the most influential social critical theorists inspiring the radical political movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Author of numerous books including One-Dimensional Man, Eros and Civilisation, and Reason and Revolution, Marcuse taught at Columbia, Harvard, Brandeis University and the University of California before his death in 1979.
Douglas Kellner is George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He is author of many books on social theory, politics, history and culture, including Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism, Media Culture, and Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity. His Critical Theory and Society: A Reader, co-edited with Stephen Eric Bronner, and book Media Spectacle, are both published by Routledge. His latest book is Media Spectacle and Insurrection, 2011: From the Arab Uprisings to Occupy Everywhere.
Clayton Pierce is an assistant professor in the department of Education, Culture, & Society at the University of Utah, USA. His books include On Marcuse: Critique, Liberation, and Reschooling in the Radical Pedagogy of Herbert Marcuse (with Douglas Kellner and Tyson Lewis), and Marcuse’s Challenge to Education (with Douglas Kellner, Tyson Lewis and Daniel Cho). His latest book is Education in the Age of Biocapitalism.
