One-Dimensional Man

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society was published in 1964 by Herbert Marcuse, a German-American philosopher associated with critical theory. The book offers a broad critique of both contemporary capitalism in the Western bloc and the communist society of the Soviet Union, documenting the parallel rise of new forms of social repression in both and the decline of revolutionary potential in the West.

Its central claim is that advanced industrial society creates false needs that integrate individuals into the existing system of production and consumption through mass media, advertising, industrial management and prevailing modes of thought. The result is a "one-dimensional" universe of thought and behavior, in which the capacity for critical thinking and oppositional action withers. Against this climate, Marcuse champions the "great refusal" as the only adequate response to all-encompassing methods of control, and defends "negative thinking" as a disruptive force against prevailing positivism.

The book also questions the Marxian postulates of a revolutionary proletariat and of the inevitability of capitalist crisis, analyzing how the industrial working class has been absorbed into capitalist society. Marcuse places his hopes in minorities, outsiders and radical intellectuals, and holds that bureaucratic tendencies in supposedly Marxist countries are as hostile to freedom as those in the capitalist West.

The work made Marcuse famous and is regarded by many as the most subversive book of its era, drawing criticism from orthodox Marxists. Despite its pessimism, it had a major influence on the New Left, articulating growing dissatisfaction with both capitalist and Soviet societies.