Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume 1

by PETER MARCUSE; VIA SANDRA DIJK

• ISBN13: 9780415137805
• ISBN10: 0415137802
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-05-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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 This collection of unpublished or uncollected essays, unfinished manuscripts, and correspondence between 1942 and 1951, provides Marcuse's exemplary attempts to link theory with practice,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 weregrounded 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 belongedhere: 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 publishingevery 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 theexchange with Heidegger highlights the point.--from the Foreword by Peter Marcuse

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix	(4)
PETER MARCUSE
Preface The Unknown Marcuse: New Archival Discoveries	xiii	(4)
DOUGLAS KELLNER
Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction Technology, War and Fascism: Marcuse in the 1940s	1	(38)
DOUGLAS KELLNER
I Some Social Implications of Modern Technology	39	(28)
II State and Individual Under National Socialism Supplement	67	(22)
III A History of the Doctrine of Social Change	93	(12)
HERBERT MARCUSE
FRANZ NEUMANN
IV Theories of Social Change	105	(34)
HERBERT MARCUSE
FRANZ NEUMANN
V The New German Mentality	139	(52)
Supplement One	174	(5)
Supplement Two	179	(8)
Supplement Three: On Psychological Neutrality	187	(4)
VI Description of Three Major Projects	191	(8)
VII Some Remarks on Aragon: Art and Politics in the Totalitarian Era	199	(16)
VIII 33 Theses	215	(14)
IX Letters to Horkheimer	229	(32)
X Heidegger and Marcuse: A Dialogue in Letters	261	(8)
Index	269