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

A classroom route into American radical thought

Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, became an important teaching base for Herbert Marcuse . Its archives record his arrival on the faculty in 1954–55. He taught students who later joined American radical movements, including Angela Davis and Ronald Aronson . The clearest evidence of this route comes from what those students say they read, learned and used. [1] (pp.188–191) [2] (opening biography) [3]

Aronson entered the graduate history-of-ideas program in 1962 because he wanted to study with Marcuse. Davis earned her French degree in 1965 and later continued studying philosophy with him. Their paths show how a university course could lead into further study, writing and political work. (pp.188–189) [2] (p.xi) [4] [3]

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Marxism taught through a wider tradition Reading, seminars and graduate work Students used the teaching in different ways Sources