One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the
Ideology of Advanced Industrial
Society by Herbert Marcuse
Very Exciting.
Originally published in 1964, One-Dimensional Man quickly became one of
the most important texts in the ensuing decade of radical political change.
This second edition, newly introduced by Marcuse scholar Douglas
Kellner, presents Marcuses best-selling work to another generation of
readers in the context of contemporary events.
Marcuse shows himself to be one of the most radical and forceful thinkers
of this time.
—The Nation

Personal Review: One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the
Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society by Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was one of the original members of the Frankfurt School
of critical theory. Along with like-minded colleagues, when Hitler came to
power in Germany, Marcuse emigrated to the United States where he
taught at a number of universities, including New School for Social
Research, Brandeis, and the University of California at San Diego.
Marcuse and the other members of the Frankfurt School were profoundly
influenced by the work of Karl Marx. In addition, however, they were
indebted to Freud and Max Weber. This helps to explain their interest in
culture as a vehicle of domination and exploitation.
During the 1960's and early 1970's, Marcuse was the most influential New
Left philosopher in the U.S., and probably throughout the world. He voiced
the suspicion, however, that he was much more often cited than he was
actually read. It seems unlikely that he would be pleased to be
remembered as one of the three M's: Marx the prophet, Marcuse his
interpreter, and Mao his sword. This sort of mindless slogan mongering
was sharply at odds with Marcuse's commitment to rigorous scholarship in
the pursuit of truth.
After 40 years, I remember One-Dimensional Man best for two relatively
simple but paradoxical notions: rationality in never neutral or disinterested,
and freedom can be oppressive and contrary to the development of human
potential.
Rationality in the service of specific interests at the expense of others is
manifest in out-sourcing, down-sizing, internationalization, and
technological development, all means of reducing labor costs to benefit
capital and at odds with the interests of labor. Rationally calculable pursuit
of profit, in other words, is thoroughly irrational from the standpoint of
labor.
The oppressiveness of freedom can be seen in modern industrial society's
capacity to provide immediate material and sensual gratification,
contributing to the creation of cultural shallowness and single-minded
pursuit of the pleasures of consumption. The creation of new needs
renders us prisoners of capital's productive apparatus and ideological
tools.
If he were alive today, one wonders if Marcuse might have entertained the
idea that our credit crisis is really a product of the contradiction between
diminished purchasing power and the ever-more-effective manipulation of
the culturally engendered need to consume. At this juncture the most we
can say with certainty is that if Marcuse wanted to develop this idea he
would not have written a polemic -- his commitment to rigorous scholarship
was much too strong.

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