Books and Papers by Charles Reitz
Marx & Philosophy, 2024
Comprehensive, exciting, and up-to-date collection of three dozen critical essays on Herbert Marc... more Comprehensive, exciting, and up-to-date collection of three dozen critical essays on Herbert Marcuse's relevance to political and philosophical challenges of our time.
pre-publication draft, 2024
A militant defense of the earth against genocide and ecocide occupied much of Herbert Marcuse's f... more A militant defense of the earth against genocide and ecocide occupied much of Herbert Marcuse's final year of life. His late-period writing featured a "green turn," not otherwise undertaken in Frankfurt School critical theory (Marcuse 2019). With his essays "Ecology and Revolution (1972)" and "Ecology and the Critique of Modern Society (1979)," he recognized the importance of ecology to the revolutionary movement and the importance of the revolutionary movement for ecology. Herbert Marcuse (1972, 5) calls upon us to fight for the radical rather than the minimal goals of socialism. The "minimal" goals of socialism would negate at every turn the profitable production of waste and pollution, and introduce such substantial economic changes as the decommodification of health care, childcare, education, food, transportation, housing, and work. Yet these are transitional goals to system change. Revolutionary goals reach beyond these initial socialist concerns and envisage system change flowing from a more encompassing view of liberation and human flourishing rooted in a radical transvaluation of values attuned to the "potential forms of a non-aggressive, non-exploitative world" (Marcuse 1969, 6). Marcuse's work stresses that we have it within our power today, despite the obstacles put in our path by the political and economic forces of capitalism, to attain racial equality, women's equality, the liberation of labor, the restoration of nature, leisure, abundance, and peace.
pre-publication draft, 2024
This is a controversial 2012 expression of Guenter Grass's exasperation at the militarism of the ... more This is a controversial 2012 expression of Guenter Grass's exasperation at the militarism of the West and also Israel as well as the hypocrisy of the West and Israel vis a vis Iran.
The Revolutionary Ecological Legacy of Herbert Marcuse, 2023
Humanity’s first teachings on ethics are to be found in ancient African philosophy. A commonwealt... more Humanity’s first teachings on ethics are to be found in ancient African philosophy. A commonwealth sense is present in them which has continued as a moral guide to social behavior up to the present. I argue that a commonwealth ethos is the intercultural core of humanity’s historical wisdom traditions and that it is at the heart of a future ecosocialist society.
The Dialectics of Liberation in Dark Times: Marcuse's Thought in the Neoliberal Era, 2023
A militant defense of the earth and its people occupied much of Herbert Marcuse's nal year of li... more A militant defense of the earth and its people occupied much of Herbert Marcuse's nal year of life. His late-period writing featured a "green turn," not otherwise undertaken in Frankfurt School critical theory (Marcuse 2019). With his essays "Ecology and Revolution (1972)" and "Ecology and the Critique of Modern Society (1979)," he recognized the importance of ecology to the revolutionary movement and the importance of the revolutionary movement for ecology. Herbert Marcuse (1972, 5) calls upon us to fight for the radical rather than the minimal goals of socialism. The "minimal" goals of socialism would negate at every turn the profitable production of waste and pollution, and introduce such substantial economic changes as the decommodification of health care, child care, education, food, transportation, housing, and work. Yet these are transitional goals to system change. Revolutionary goals reach beyond these initial socialist concerns and envisage system change flowing from a more encompassing view of liberation and human flourishing rooted in a radical transvaluation of values attuned to the "potential forms of a non-aggressive, non-exploitative world" (Marcuse 1969, 6). Marcuse's work stresses that we have it within our power today, despite the obstacles put in our path by the political and economic forces of capitalism, to attain racial equality, women's equality, the liberation of labor, the restoration of nature, leisure, abundance, and peace. In "Ecology and the Critique of Modern Society" Marcuse ([1979] 2011) addresses "the destruction of nature in the context of the general destructiveness which characterizes our society." Under the conditions of advanced industrial society, satisfaction is always tied to destruction. The domination of nature is tied to the violation of nature. The search for new sources of energy is tied to the poisoning of the life environment.
pre-publication draft, published in CounterPunch+ March 1, 2024
"Israelism" is a new word coined to describe "one-sided propaganda about Palestinians that Americ... more "Israelism" is a new word coined to describe "one-sided propaganda about Palestinians that American Jews and others have been indoctrinated with regarding the Israeli occupation, apartheid, and other dehumanizing policies." MAGA Republicans recently utilized Israelism to accuse the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T., and the University of Pennsylvania of antisemitism. In reality, tens of thousands of Palestinians today have paid with their lives for the history of U.S. and British antisemitism, which both turned away from U.S. shores Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and refused to resettle Europe’s relatively small Jewish population as a group within U.S. borders. Antisemitism is real. So also is a militarist Israelism―supporting the Israeli genocide in Gaza while falsely charging left-leaning antiwar forces with anti-Jewish bias.
CounterPunch CP+, 2024
A new battle has re-ignited the right-wing culture wars that have been roiling college campuses o... more A new battle has re-ignited the right-wing culture wars that have been roiling college campuses over the last two decades, now with charges of antisemitism on campus.1 Up to now this war has focused on repealing liberal policies in U.S. higher education (targeting affirmative action, equity, diversity and inclusion, and much more, i.e. having ostensibly woke tenured radicals on the faculty who supposedly enforce political correctness). This latest attempt to curb liberals and the Left features MAGA Republicans like New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik offering implicit support to rightwing Israeli politicians today through highly publicized hearings in Washington, D.C. She used her inquisitor's position to evade legitimate criticism of Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza. Critical discourse analysis can help us understand meanings and communicative context better.
Das Questões [Brazil], 2022
This is an essay on Marcuse's theory of the political Eros which has the power to help us attain ... more This is an essay on Marcuse's theory of the political Eros which has the power to help us attain our happiness-in-common by learning to live with dignity, freedom, and gratitude on planet Earth. Ecosocialism, in Marcuse's view, possesses the erotic potential to bring beauty and sensuous satisfaction to an abundant socioeconomic order, fulfilling our natural and political essence as human beings.
Charles Reitz is a major scholar of the work of Herbert Marcuse and an important commentator on t... more Charles Reitz is a major scholar of the work of Herbert Marcuse and an important commentator on the global crises faced by contemporary society. In this new book he continues to apply the critical Marxism of Herbert Marcuse to contemporary problems such as the destructive nature of global capitalism, the politics of neofascism, racism, ecological destruction, etc. This book is a necessary read for anyone who is struggling to understand the social, ecological, political, and economic crisis in which we live. Reitz's careful analysis opens the door for new and creative ways to address our present situation. Indeed, it is a new call for what Marcuse termed the "Great Refusal.
Herbert Marcuse's political-philosophical vision, cultural critique, and social activism continue... more Herbert Marcuse's political-philosophical vision, cultural critique, and social activism continue to offer an intelligent strategic perspective on current concerns-especially issues of ecological destruction, neofascist white supremacy, hate speech, hate crimes, and racist police violence. These can be countered through a recognition of the intersectionality of radical needs of diverse constituencies and radical collaboration, giving rise to system negation as a new general interest, and an ecosocialist strategy of revolutionary activism within a global alliance of transformational forces.
Ecology and Revolution: Herbert Marcuse and the Challenge of a New World System Today, 2019
Uniquely among the members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Social Theory, Herbert Marcuse wro... more Uniquely among the members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Social Theory, Herbert Marcuse wrote about the ecology. He advocated a practical strategy for revolutionary ecological liberation.
Radical Philosophy Review, 2017
Tanya Loughead's new book is a substantial contribution to the counter-hegemonic critique of high... more Tanya Loughead's new book is a substantial contribution to the counter-hegemonic critique of higher education. She discusses an array of radical philosophical and sociological perspectives that are absent from the generally prevailing, business-oriented views of U.S. higher education today. Extending the work of Herbert Marcuse, Henry Giroux, and Paulo Freire her book is a source of new critical theoretical and practical insight. It offers a timely assessment and a powerful, engaging, strategy for a change of direction moving to restore higher education's classic purpose, which Marcuse propounds in the tradition of Kant, as an education, not for the present, but for the better future condition of the human race. Prof. Loughead proposes the radical project she calls "freedom-work," and champions the critical university as a site of humanist activism and creative labor. Overall, she defends the thesis that the university needs to be a site where educators model the critical life through radical research, teaching, and service. She writes: "To fight for the scholarly meaning of the university nowadays is to be a radical" (CU 2). Loughead invites us to join her in questioning the overt and latent functions of U.S. higher education. We are invited via an elucidation of Althusser to challenge the tendency of K-12 and post-secondary education to reproduce the unequal social division of labor and the one-dimensional corporate ideology that we live in and through.
Radical Philosophy Review
Review of David Graeber and David Wengrow, "This Changes Everything"
Critical Research on Religion, Volume 4, Issue 2, August 2016., 2016
Sophia, 2023
Roy Bhaskar, renowned philosopher of naturalism and critical realism, discloses key new personal ... more Roy Bhaskar, renowned philosopher of naturalism and critical realism, discloses key new personal and political context to his writings to interlocutor Savita Singh. Keywords Roy Bhaskar • Critical realism • Critical naturalism • Savita Singh • MetaReality 'You don't need any of my books really. But if you are reading my books, then you choose what you get out of them, and use it creatively and lovingly.'-Roy Bhaskar (2020, 235).
Herbert Marcuse's political-philosophical vision, cultural critique, and social activism continue... more Herbert Marcuse's political-philosophical vision, cultural critique, and social activism continue to offer an intelligent strategic perspective on current concerns-especially issues of ecological destruction, neofascist white supremacy, hate speech, hate crimes, and racist police violence. These can be countered through a recognition of the intersectionality of radical needs of diverse constituencies and radical collaboration, giving rise to system negation as a new general interest, and an ecosocialist strategy of revolutionary activism within a global alliance of transformational forces.
Radical Philosophy Review, 2016
ODM contributed vitally to a new way of understanding of U.S. culture by bringing in insights fro... more ODM contributed vitally to a new way of understanding of U.S. culture by bringing in insights from Marcuse’s experience with fascism in Germany. ODM widened what has sometimes been criticized as critical theory’s Eurocentric focus, through Marcuse’s effort to deepen intellectually certain broadly critical projects already underway in the U.S.: the demystification of the vaunted myths of affluence and melting pot assimilation in American life.
Fast Capitalism, 2009
Unlike Brecht, Eisler, and several academic leftists in America, the central proponents of critic... more Unlike Brecht, Eisler, and several academic leftists in America, the central proponents of critical theory, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse, were never called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) during the McCarthy period. An outer circle Institute associate, Karl August Wittfogel, actually became a friendly informant to HUAC. Leo Löwenthal became research director for the patriotic Voice of America (1949-1953). Marcuse was, however, the subject of several FBI background investigations. The earliest was in 1943 in
Ecology and Revolution: Herbert Marcuse and the Challenge of a New World System Today, 2019
Investigates the importance of critical political economy for critical social theory, stressing k... more Investigates the importance of critical political economy for critical social theory, stressing key role of Marx's understanding of commodity fetishism.
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Books and Papers by Charles Reitz
Marcuse’s approach to critical theorizing. Marcuse’s early life
in the German capital city of Berlin had lasting and contrasting
impacts upon his political perspective and social activism
when compared to the more provincial Frankfurt experiences
of Horkheimer and Adorno. Marcuse was also more upbeat,
resistant to defeatism, and conventionally thorough—in other
words, less fragmentary or experimental—in his academic
writing. I also offer a detailed description of the deep intellectual
affinities linking the work of Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse
into a distinguished “school” of critical social thought.