Description
Book SynopsisCounterrevolution and Repression in the Politics of Education revisits the ideas of Herbert Marcuse in order to examine how his observations on counterrevolution are applicable to present conditions in politics, particularly those pertaining to the politics of education. While Marcuse's influence in the academy has noticeably waned since its zenith in the late 1960's, his observations seem more relevant than ever, especially in the current context of economic crises, ideological polarization, and a heightened disaffection with capitalism. In particular, this book focuses on how counterrevolution functions within the field of ideology, manipulating the acquisition, representation, and exercise of reason in order to diminish the faculties of dissent and render utopian projects as the paramount political obscenity. While we are most familiar with counterrevolution in its guise of bloodstained battlefields and ditches filled with the bodies of dissidents, Marcuse alerts us to the decidedly
Trade ReviewSean Noah Walsh's Counterrevolution and Repression in the Politics of Education is a significant work that not only casts light on the academy as a significant driver of reification, but that also promises to help reanimate critical theory through a fresh deployment of Marcuse's works. By posing the grossly under utilized and still troubling Marcuse at a critical site of learning and communication, Walsh speaks to important questions of education, praxis and citizenship relevant not only to political theorists, but to all those within the academy seeking to challenge and improve it. -- Amy L. Buzby, Arkansas State University
This is a timely and provocative assessment of current developments in the politics of academia. Equipped with a theoretical framework that draws on Marcuse, Althusser, and the semiotics of Julien Greimas, Walsh offers an astute analysis of what he considers a Marcusian ‘counterrevolution’ in education from the bolstering of so-called STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) at the expense of social science and humanities to the depersonalized mass teaching of MOOC. Of interest for anyone who cares about the future of academia and its role in society. -- Thomas Biebricher, Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt, Professor of Political Theory
Table of ContentsChapter 1: On the Obsolescence of Critical Theory Chapter 2: Abortion of the Intellect Chapter 3: Inhuman Minds Chapter 4: Degrees of Vulgarity Chapter 5: The Art of Teaching in the Age of Electronic Reproduction Chapter 6: The Forbidden Library Works Cited
