Technology, War and Fascism

Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse Volume 1

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by Herbert Marcuse and Douglas Kellner

Routledge

Due/Published June 1998, 278 pages, cloth

ISBN 0415137802

Acclaimed throughout the world as a philosopher of liberation and revolution, Herbert Marcuse is one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. His penetrating critiques of the ways modern technology produces forms of society and culture with oppressive modes of social control indicate his enduring significance in the contemporary moment. This collection of unpublished or uncollected essays, unfinished manuscripts, and correspondence between 1942 and 1951, provides Marcuse's exemplary attempts to link theory with practice, and develops ideas that can be used to grasp and transform existing social reality.

These papers vividly chronicle Marcuse's increasing, yet reluctant estrangement from Max Horkeimer, director of the Institute for Social Research and his years as an analyst with various U.S. government agencies. Marcuse's later attempts to link theory and practice in the 1960s and 1970s in regard to the New Left, National Liberation Movements and other new social movements were grounded in his work from the 1940s. As the 1940s witnessed the rise to global prominence of German fascism and its defeat in World War Two, and the emergence of the Cold War, Marcuse strived to preserve the radical vision of his youth during a difficult historical period while many turned toward more conservative positions.

Precisely the sort of broad theoretical and political theorizing that Marcuse undertook througout his life is needed today to analyze the momentous changes that we are currently undergoing.

Excerpt: Personal history is interwoven with intellectual and political events in these papers. We debated whether letters belonged here: whether some should be published at all. My father had a deep sense of personal privacy, both as a character trait and as a political expression of resistance to the commodification of the private. Yet the letters contain substantive discussions also. We could have edited out, expurgated some of the material. While not publishing every letter my father wrote, our selection was based on interest, and every letter that is included is included in full. That decision was in part painful for me personally. The juxtaposition of the letters to Horkeimer and the exchange with Heidegger highlights the point. --from the Foreword by Peter Marcuse

(Tikkun)

Review

An extraordinary, incisive and relevant collection of previously unpublished writings from the Herbert Marcuse archives. One of the prime figures in the Frankfurt School, a darling of the New Left in the 1960's, Marcuse's prominence has subsided in the past twenty years or so. His utopian leanings and hopes of the restoration of reason does not jibe with many post-modernists. However, as these writings clearly illustrate, Marcuse's analysis of fascism, the modern technological state, and his ability to join theory and practice has a great deal to say to our contemporary situation. Some of the documents included here are studies Marcuse wrote while working for the OSS and the State Department during the years 1942 to 1951. Marcuse brilliantly analyzes the effects of Nazi power on the individual and suggests strategies for anti-Nazi propaganda within Germany and the Allied countries. After the war Marcuse turned his attention to the creation of a new Germany, plans for de-Nazification, and the prosecution of former Nazi officials. His leftist leanings and efforts to counter the narrow cold war mentality left him with little influence on policies but are excellent demonstrations of Marcuse's fusion of theory and practice. The collection also includes writings on the fate of art in modern-industrial society and its potential as an oppositional force. Finally, the book concludes with his correspondences with Horkheimer and Heidegger. (His letters with the latter culminates with Marcuse severing ties with his former teacher Heidegger over his support of the Nazis and refusal to retract his earlier statements.)