The Dunayevskaya-Marcuse-Fromm Correspondence, 1954-1978: Dialogues on Hegel, Marx, and Critical Theory

Anderson and Rockwell’s edited collection of the correspondence between Raya Dunayevskaya and first Herbert Marcuse, then Erich Fromm, brings Marxist humanism to life. These letters give the reader a close view of these three major theorists’ understanding of the movements and issues of these decades, and of their sometimes corresponding, sometimes clashing political and theoretical outlooks. Anderson and Rockwell’s introduction places these dialogues in context, tracing the political and intellectual evolution of each of the authors, and highlighting the importance of the issues that they grapple with. This collection is a crucial resource for anyone wishing to understand Marxist humanism, the range of views within it, and its relation to Critical Theory.

This book is an excellent treatment of an understudied area in the history of the development of Frankfurt School Critical Theory in the U.S. and its intersections with Marxist Humanism. It delivers an original piece of work in the Critical Theory/history of the Frankfurt School literature; it fills an important gap by making the connection between these three important Marxist theorists who all evolved intellectually in the context of the U.S. and emigrated from Europe; and it presents material that will challenge historians of radical thought in the U.S. from the 1950s to the 1970s as well.

This book will be most interesting to those with a serious and political interest in one or more of the interlocutors. The text has important documentary value, and its publication is timely, since the contribution of Marcuse and Fromm to the Frankfurt School is being re-evaluated and in this time of left regrouping in the United States, Dunayevskaya’s legacy is more important than ever.

This supple meditation on the exchange among three of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century is an absorbing, stimulating and fiercely illuminating contribution to radical philosophy. And further, this collection of correspondence between Dunayevskaya, Marcuse and Fromm is not only historically significant from the perspective of philosophical aficionados, but limpidly demonstrates the continued relevance, if not urgency, of the work of these iconic thinkers for the present historical juncture. And most significantly, the volume speaks to the growing importance of Marxist humanist philosophy for a radical transcendence of domination and oppression as a concrete historical possibility for our times.