"WE SHALL BE FREE TO THINK ABOUT WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO": FIRST EDITION OF MARCUSE'S AN ESSAY ON LIBERATION, 1969

MARCUSE, Herbert. An Essay on Liberation. Boston: Beacon, (1969). Slim octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. $2250.

First edition of this philosophical work on reinvigorating Leftist movements and the necessary conditions for lasting change, inscribed: "For Dick and Julie, Herbert."

"Published in 1969 in the midst of the ferment of popular uprisings and movements across the globe, An Essay on Liberation written by the late Herbert Marcuse, a member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory and a mentor of contemporary political activists and critical theorists such as Angela Davis and Douglas Kellner, explores a number of crucial terrains—material, cultural, political—and poses a number of engaging questions that require the attention of those currently attempting to rebuild Left movements and critical analysis" (Frank Samson III). An Essay on Liberation "is an attempt to critically delineate the conditions necessary for the emergence of what [Marcuse] refers to as a 'non-repressive' society" (Yoels, Labor History). "No 20th-century philosopher… has been the object of such lively public controversy as Herbert Marcuse." After fleeing Nazi Germany, Marcuse ultimately moved to America as a founding member of the renowned Frankfurt School, where he "played a highly crucial role in the reorientation of radical thought in the second half of the 20th century" (Sills, 497-500).

Book very nearly fine, unfaded dust jacket extremely good with scattered staining and a bit of wear mainly to extremities. A desirable inscribed copy.