One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (1964) is an academic monograph written by philosopher Herbert Marcuse. Marcuse was a German philosopher, social critic, and political theorist who studied at Humboldt University in Berlin and then at the University of Freiburg, where he received his PhD. He was a leading scholar in the Institute for Social Research, based in Frankfurt, Germany, which later became known as the influential Frankfurt School.

One-Dimensional Man is a key text of both the Frankfurt School and the New Left. It adopts and also critiques Marxist thinking and poses the big question of why Karl Marx’s prediction of a revolution precipitated by the working class has not occurred. Marcuse argues that “advanced industrial society,” which has developed out of capitalism in modernity, “enslaves” people, who are therefore unable to revolt. He argues that the technological system of advanced industrial society squelches any glimmer of revolution. The people, though they think they are liberated by technology under advanced capitalism, are subservient to the technology that comfortably represses them.

This study guide uses Beacon Press’s 1964 edition of One-Dimensional Man.

Summary

One-Dimensional Man is a critique of modern Western capitalism or “advanced industrial society,” with a focus on the United States.