Marcuse

From the New Left to the Next Left

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Edited by John Bokina and Timothy J. Lukes

University Press of Kansas

Due/Published April 1994, 256 pages, paper

ISBN 0700606599

MARCUSE brings back to center stage one of the most celebrated and controversial philosophers of the turbulent 1960s, the man Time magazine called the "guru of the New Left." In Reason and Revolution, Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man, and other notable works, Herbert Marcuse crystallized the essence of counterculture philosophy. His neo-Marxist critique of Western capitalism was widely embraced by revolutionaries, "hippies," and an entire generation of academics who condemned political, economic, and sexual repression in American society. So complete was Marcuse's identification with the New Left that, with its demise, he and his works fell out of favor. But, as this volume persuasively shows, Marcuse remains vitally relevant for us today. These writers illuminate the outlines of a Marcuse revival and the Next Left as both emerge to confront the complex challenges of our times.