Herbert Marcuse was not only one of the most controversial thinkers in the history of American learning, he was also one of the most popular. This is all the more remarkable given that Marcuse did not emigrate to the United States until 1934, when he was thirty-six years old. In the following three decades, he rapidly gained both fame and notoriety for his astute insights into the failures of capitalism as well as his scathing critiques of Soviet Communism. Marcuse’s brilliantly polemical writings established him as perhaps the leading intellectual in the United States in the 1960s.

Upbringing and Early Academic Life

Upbringing and Early Academic Life

Herbert Marcuse was born in Berlin on 19 July 1898 of wealthy parents, and he served in the German army in World War I. After the failure

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Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "Herbert Marcuse". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 May 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2932, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2932 Herbert Marcuse 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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