Crisis and Commonwealth

Charles Reitz retired in 2006 as professor of philosophy and social science at Kansas City Kansas Community College, where he also served as Director of Intercultural Education and President of the Faculty Association (KNEA). He has co-edited a Special Edition of the Radical Philosophy Review on Herbert Marcuse (with Andrew Lamas, Arnold L. Farr, and Douglas Kellner, 2013), and is the author of several publications on the educational and political philosophy of Herbert Marcuse: Art, Alienation, and the Humanities: A Critical Engagement with Herbert Marcuse (SUNY Press, 2000); “Herbert Marcuse and the Humanities: Emancipatory Education and Predatory Culture,” and “Herbert Marcuse and the New Culture Wars,” in Douglas Kellner, Tyson Lewis, Clayton Pierce, K. Daniel Cho, Marcuse’s Challenge to Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Crisis and Commonwealth: Politics, Pedagogy, PraxisCharles ReitzChapter 1. The Political Economy of Predation and Counterrevolution: Recalling Marcuse on the Radical Goals of SocialismCharles Reitz and Stephen SpartanChapter 2. Socialism One Sector at a TimePeter MarcuseChapter 3. Charter 2000:A Transitional Program for LaborDavid BrodskyChapter 4. “Vote for a Job”? A Short History of Contemporary Strategic Failure on the Organized Left, with Lessons for the PresentFred WhiteheadChapter 5. U.S. Capitalism and Militarism in Crisis? Our Political Work TodayDouglas Dowd Chapter 6. Empire as a Way of Life: CourseOutline and BibliographyJohn MarcianoChapter 7. Surplus Over-Appropriation and the Reproduction Crisis in the Western Roman EmpireStephen SpartanChapter 8. An Essay on Repressive Education: Marcuse, Marx, Adorno, and the Future of Emancipatory LearningArnold L. FarrChapter 9. Can Democratic Education Survive in a Neoliberal Society? Henry A. GirouxChapter 10. Defeating Corporate Blueprints, White Papers, and Blue Ribbon Task Forces:Academic Labor Reclaims Public Higher Education for the PublicPatricia P. BrodskyChapter 11. Art as a Manifestation of the Struggle for Human Emancipation: A Non-Dogmatic Marxist Position in Aesthetics Zvi TauberChapter 12. A Labor Theory of Ethics and Commonwealth: Recalling a “New” MarcuseCharles ReitzChapter 13. Diversity, Equality, Empowerment in Politics and EducationCharles ReitzChapter 14. Cultural Origins of African Humanism and Socialism (Ujamaa)Alfred T. KisubiChapter 15. The Second Assassination of Dr. KingLloyd C. DanielChapter 16. Year Two of Arab RevolutionsKevin AndersonChapter 17. Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy for a Socialist Society: A Manifesto Peter McLarenChapter 18. The Communist HorizonJodi DeanConclusion. The Commonwealth Counter-OffensiveCharles ReitzAppendix. Four Manuscripts on Value Theory, Humanism, and Socialism Herbert MarcuseName IndexSubject Index About the Contributors

No one knows better than Charles Reitz that critical theory—at its best—is a three-legged stool, constructed with great care and attention to political economy, aesthetics, and pedagogy. When any one of these radical elements is missing, critical praxis is impoverished; however, when they are carefully fused together by a scholar and editor of Reitz's stature, then the intellectual legacy of Marx and Marcuse is renewed to work again in our time for projects of resistance, refusal, and liberation. I highly recommend Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren.