Crisis and Commonwealth

Marcuse, Marx, McLaren

Charles Reitz editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:28th Aug '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Crisis and Commonwealth cover

Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren advances Marcuse scholarship by presenting four hitherto untranslated and unpublished manuscripts by Herbert Marcuse from the Frankfurt University Archive on themes of economic value theory, socialism, and humanism. Contributors to this edited collection, notably Peter Marcuse, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Zvi Tauber, Arnold L. Farr and editor, Charles Reitz, are deeply engaged with the foundational theories of Marcuse and Marx with regard to a future of freedom, equality, and justice. Douglas Dowd furnishes the critical historical context with regard to U.S. foreign and domestic policy, particularly its features of economic imperialism and militarism. Reitz draws these elements together to show that the writings by Herbert Marcuse and these formidable authors can ably assist a global movement toward intercultural commonwealth. The collection extends the critical theories of Marcuse and Marx to an analysis of the intensifying inequalities symptomatic of our current economic distress. It presents a collection of essays by radical scholars working in the public interest to develop a critical analysis of recent global economic dislocations. Reitz presents a new foundation for emancipatory practice—a labor theory of ethics and commonwealth, and the collection breaks new ground by constructing a critical theory of wealth and work. A central focus is building a new critical vision for labor, including academic labor. Lessons are drawn to inform transformative political action, as well as the practice of a critical, multicultural pedagogy, supporting a new manifesto for radical educators contributed by Peter McLaren. The collection is intended especially to appeal to contemporary interests of college students and teachers in several interrelated social science disciplines: sociology, social problems, economics, ethics, business ethics, labor education, history, political philosophy, multicultural education, and critical pedagogy.

No one knows better than Charles Reitz that critical theory—at its best—is a three-legged stool, constructed with great care and attention to political economy, aesthetics, and pedagogy. When any one of these radical elements is missing, critical praxis is impoverished; however, when they are carefully fused together by a scholar and editor of Reitz's stature, then the intellectual legacy of Marx and Marcuse is renewed to work again in our time for projects of resistance, refusal, and liberation. I highly recommend Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren. -- Andrew T. Lamas, University of Pennsylvania
The numerous social, economic, and military global crises of the last decades not only provoked protest movements throughout the world; they also brought about socio-critical analyses that offer astute examinations of the threats and turmoil in the global economy. Crisis and Commonwealth, edited by Charles Reitz, gathers such radical analyses in the critical intellectual tradition inspired by Marx and Marcuse. In the first chapter, Reitz and his chapter co-editor Stephan Spartan prove that Marcuse’s dialectical method of radical thinking, with its political principle of “liberation”, is still a radical weapon to analyze the crises of today. Reitz has established himself as one of the finest translators of German critical theorists including Habermas, Honneth, and Marcuse. His translation here of Marcuse's previously quite unknown Humanism and Humanity is a key contribution to Marcuse scholarship. It is particularly valuable in the context of Reitz's effort to explicate Marcuse's unique approach to socialist humanism as well as his own critical theoretical perspective. -- Peter-Erwin Jansen, editor of Herbert Marcuse’s and Leo Löwenthal’s intellectual estate in Germany; professor, University of Applied Sciences, Koblenz
I wholeheartedly embrace this book as a part of the Marcuse Renaissance now underway. In an age where the 99% must struggle needlessly through longer working years and ever more tedious jobs, Marcuse’s call for “a life that is no longer spent in making a living” is more relevant today than ever. These essays help us not only glimpse the horizon of liberation, but move us concretely toward that historical moment when human beings will become masters of their own destiny. -- George Katsiaficas, activist and author of "Asia’s Unknown Uprisings"

ISBN: 9780739183069

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

332 pages