The Long
Insurgency

Dossier · 1954–1968

Brandeis University

Teaching and student routes through Marcuse’s American classroom

Chronology

1954–1968

195419611968
6 dated events
  1. Marcuse joins the Brandeis faculty Reported · Source 1, Final paragraph
  2. Aronson enters Brandeis graduate program Documented · Source 2, p. 188
  3. Brandeis Politics 171b course Documented · Source 5, Title; pp. 1–4
  4. Davis completes French degree at Brandeis Reported · Source 3, Opening biography paragraph beginning Davis was born
  5. Aronson defends his Brandeis dissertation Documented · Source 2, p. 188
  6. Aronson leads Liberation School discussion at Columbia Documented · Source 2, pp. 188–189

Reading, seminars and graduate work

Marcuse 's teaching brought demanding philosophical study into direct contact with students interested in social change. Aronson describes classes on Plato's Meno and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Students read the material repeatedly and came ready to discuss it. (p.190) [2]

The 1963 Politics171b bibliography offers a dated example of the work. It directs students to Marx's early writings, the Communist Manifesto, Capital or selections from it, and debates about the Soviet system. (pp.2–4) [5]

In spring 1968, Aronson defended his Brandeis dissertation on art and freedom in Sartre. Soon afterward, he led a discussion group at Columbia's student Liberation School. That was one student's move from graduate study into an activist teaching setting. (pp.188–189) [2]