48 Facts About Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.

Herbert Marcuse was married to Sophie Wertheim, Inge Neumann, and Erica Sherover.

Between 1943 and 1950, Herbert Marcuse worked in US government service for the Office of Strategic Services where he criticized the ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the book Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis.

Herbert Marcuse was born July 19,1898 in Berlin, to Carl Marcuse and Gertrud Kreslawsky.

Herbert Marcuse's family was a German upper-middle-class Jewish family that was well integrated into German society.

Herbert Marcuse returned to Freiburg in 1928 to study with Edmund Husserl and write a habilitation with Martin Heidegger, which was published in 1932 as Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity.

In 1932 Herbert Marcuse stopped working with Heidegger, who later joined the Nazi Party in 1933.

Herbert Marcuse understood that he would not qualify as a professor under the Nazi regime as the Nazis seized power and anti-Semitism increased.

Herbert Marcuse was then hired to work in the Institute of Social Research in the Frankfurt School.

The Institute deposited their endowment in Holland in anticipation of the Nazi takeover, so Herbert Marcuse never got to actually work in the school.

Herbert Marcuse began his work with the Institute in Geneva, where a branch office was formed.

Herbert Marcuse worked closely with critical theorists while at the institute.

Herbert Marcuse served at the Institute's Columbia University branch from 1934 through 1942.

Herbert Marcuse traveled to Washington, DC, in 1942, to work for the Office of War Information, and afterward the Office of Strategic Services.

Herbert Marcuse then went on to teach at Brandeis University and the University of California, San Diego later in his career.

Herbert Marcuse retired after the death of his first wife in 1951.

Herbert Marcuse first began his teaching career as a political theorist at Columbia University, then at Harvard University in 1952.

Herbert Marcuse worked at Brandeis University from 1954 to 1965, then at the University of California San Diego from 1965 to 1970.

Herbert Marcuse was a friend and collaborator of the political sociologist Barrington Moore Jr.

Herbert Marcuse had many speaking engagements in the US and Western Bloc in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Herbert Marcuse became a close friend and inspirer of the French philosopher Andre Gorz.

Peter Herbert Marcuse was a professor emeritus of urban planning at Columbia University located in New York.

On July 29,1979, ten days after his eighty-first birthday, Herbert Marcuse died after suffering a stroke during his trip to Germany.

Herbert Marcuse had just finished speaking at the Frankfurt Romerberggesprache, and was on his way to the Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Scientific-Technical World in Starnberg, on invitation from second-generation Frankfurt School theorist Jurgen Habermas.

Herbert Marcuse's thinking has been seen as an advance of the concerns of earlier liberal critics such as David Riesman.

Herbert Marcuse argued that capitalism and industrialization pushed laborers so hard that they began to see themselves as extensions of the objects they were producing.

At the beginning of One-Dimensional Man Herbert Marcuse writes, "The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment," meaning that under capitalism, humans become extensions of the commodities that they buy, thus making commodities extensions of people's minds and bodies.

Herbert Marcuse evolved a theory over the years that stated modern technology is repressive naturally.

Herbert Marcuse believed that in both capitalist and communist societies, workers did not question the manner in which they lived due to the mechanism of repression of technological advances.

Herbert Marcuse claimed the modern-day workers were not as rebellious as before during the Karl Marx era.

Since they had conformed, the revolution that Herbert Marcuse felt was necessary by the people never happened.

Herbert Marcuse argues that genuine tolerance does not permit support for "repression", since doing so ensures that marginalized voices will remain unheard.

Herbert Marcuse later expressed his radical ideas through three pieces of writing.

Herbert Marcuse wrote An Essay on Liberation in 1969, in which he celebrated liberation movements such as those in Vietnam, which inspired many radicals.

Herbert Marcuse devoted the rest of his life to teaching, writing and giving lectures around the world.

Herbert Marcuse's efforts brought him attention from the media, which claimed that he openly advocated violence, although he often clarified that only "violence of defense" could be appropriate, not "violence of aggression".

Herbert Marcuse continued to promote Marxian theory, with some of his students helping to spread his ideas.

Herbert Marcuse published his final work The Aesthetic Dimension in 1979 on the role of art in the process of what he termed "emancipation" from bourgeois society.

Herbert Marcuse was particularly concerned with Feminism near the end of his life, for reasons he explained in a public lecture Marxism and Feminism in 1974.

Many themes and ambitions from Herbert Marcuse's work found embodiment in socialist feminism, especially ideas developed in Eros and Civilization.

Herbert Marcuse hoped for a shift in moral values away from aggressive and masculine qualities towards feminine ones.

The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre asserted that Herbert Marcuse falsely assumed consumers were completely passive, uncritically responding to corporate advertising.

Hence, MacIntyre proposed that Herbert Marcuse be regarded as "a pre-Marxist thinker".

Herbert Marcuse appealed to students of the New Left through his emphasis on the power of critical thought and his vision of total human emancipation and a non-repressive civilization.

Herbert Marcuse supported students he felt were subject to the pressures of a commodifying system, and has been regarded as an inspirational intellectual leader.

Herbert Marcuse is considered among the most influential of the Frankfurt School critical theorists on American culture, due to his studies on student and counter-cultural movements on the 1960s.

The legacy of the 1960s, of which Herbert Marcuse was a vital part, lives on, and the great refusal is still practiced by oppositional groups and individuals.

Herbert Marcuse is not widely remembered outside of contexts where critical theory is taught or referenced.