One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial… (1964)

This is one of the most difficult books I have read and most of it probably needs a training in philosophy. I suspect a lot of its influence was mediated through reviews and summaries. It is clear that he thinks that the proletariat has been repressed by new methods of control and that there is more hope in the lumpen-proletariat. ( )

Marcuse's examination of advanced industrial societies in the post-War world. Still holds up after nearly half a century, though it does snow some creakiness at the seams.

This is a great book outlining the effects of "mass media" and the hypnosis through this said medium. Marcuse is very thorough and clear in explanation as to the "one-dimension" that man is becoming. ( )

This is Marcuse's most famous work and one that was a major influence on and during the student revolts all over the European continent of 1968. Many of the catchphrases of that time, such as "repressive tolerance" and the like, are derived directly from Marcuse. He has since lost much of his popularity and audience, and in my view, quite deservedly so.

His main thesis is that modern man has become one-dimensional due to the totalitarian, all-encompassing exercise of power by the entrenched capitalist class. While this of itself is not such a bad idea, though certainly romanticizing and exaggerating reality, his approach to explaining and attacking it leaves very much to be desired. Marcuse overuses empty or unexplained phrases endlessly (like "cutting off perspectives through an overwhelming ossified concreteness of imagery" and similar things) while at the same time hardly making use of any prior thought or philosophy on the subject at all. This makes the impression of much ranting and little content. Even worse is his general laziness as a thinker - he never actually bothers to explain why such a full-spectrum dominance has occurred or how he wants to prove its existence, he merely asserts it and then goes on about the manifold bad effects it has.
Rather bizarre in this context, and perhaps even nihilistic, is his general dislike of what he perceives as "rationality". He only uses this word in negative contexts (particularly in the context of industrial expansion) and seems to consider it the primary form of "one-dimensional thinking", affected by the symbolism of capitalism. Now it is one thing to say that the fashionable concept of rationalism is false and ill-founded, but to reject relying on rational processes altogether as he seems to do is a bit too much.

To put it bluntly, everything Marcuse has written in this book has also been written in, say, Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle", and then in half as many words and quite more philosophically coherent. The early Marcuse (of Eros and Civilization) was much better; this book warrants no more interest than a purely antiquarian historical one. ( )

Considered by some to be some to be the most subversive book of the Twentieth century, this is Marcuse's in-depth critique of capitalism and commumism, which create, according to Marcuse, a 'One-dimensional way of thinking'. Marcuse argues that 'advanced mechanical society' creates false needs (similar to Engels' concept of 'false consciousness') which blind the populace to their exploitation and alienation.

An interesting and thought-provoking book for anyone interested in Marxist thought and sociology in general. ( )