Introduction

This volume is grounded in the Frankfurt School critical theory of Herbert Marcuse and speaks to the challenge and necessity of building the theory and practice for an alternate world system. Marcuse’s critical social theory needs to be reclaimed for our time, in particular, his understanding of a) “revolutionary ecological liberation” (Marcuse [1972] 2005, 174); b) what he saw as the dialectical rationality of philosophy; c) the material and sensual nature of the human essence; and d) his critical political economy and theory of the radical rather than the minimal goals of socialism.