A Study on Authority

This is the first paperback edition of what is now recognized as Marcuse’s most important collection of writings on philosophy. He analyzes and attacks some of the main intellectual currents of European thoughts from the Reformation to the Cold War. In a survey that includes Luther, Calvin, Kant, Burke, Hegel and Bergson, he shows how certain concepts of authority and liberty are constant elements in their very different systems. The book also contains Marcuse’s famous response to Karl Popper’s Poverty of Historicism, and his critique of Sartre.“Marcuse brought a forceful clarity to the leftist table; a classical Marxism willing to confront new realities.”—The Nation

“Lucid and powerful.”—New Society

“It is a worldly philosopher’s dream: his long neglected works catch fire, illuminate his times and emblazon his name for posterity. It does not often come true, but it did for Herbert Marcuse.”—Time Magazine

“Well worth reading.”—Radical PhilosophyHerbert Marcuse, 1898–1979, was a member of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. He was forced to leave Germany in 1933, eventually settling in the USA. His classic studies of capitalist society, Eros and Civilization and One-Dimensional Man, were important influences on the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s and his libertarian socialism remains an important intellectual resource.