Crisis and Commonwealth

Marcuse, Marx, McLaren

Charles Reitz

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780739183076
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren advances Marcuse scholarship by presenting four hitherto untranslated and unpublished manuscripts by Herbert Marcuse from the Frankfurt University Archive on themes of economic value theory, socialism, and humanism.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.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Political Economy of Predation and Counterrevolution
• Socialism One Sector at a Time
• Charter 2000
• “Vote for a Job”
• U.S. Capitalism and Militarism in Crisis
• Empire as a Way of Life
• Surplus Over-Appropriation and the Reproduction Crisis of the Western Roman Empire
• An Essay on Repressive Education
• Can Democratic Education Survive in a Neoliberal Society?
• Defeating Corporate Blueprints, White Papers, and Blue Ribbon Task Forces
• Art as a Manifestation of the Struggle for Human Liberation
• A Labor Theory of Ethics and Commonwealth
• Diversity, Equality, Empowerment in Politics and Education
• Cultural Origins of African Humanism and Socialism ( Ujamaa )
• The Second Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Year Two of the Arab Revolutions
• Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy for a Socialist Society
• The Communist Horizon
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Name Index
• Subject Index
• About the Contributors