brutality of gladiator matches. He is remembered as a
rarely philosophical, civilized Roman emperor, inter-
ested in wisdom and justice as ideals. He spent much of
his reign suppressing rebellions in Germany but
brought a plague back to Rome.
Further Reading
Birley, Anthony Richard. Marcus Aurelius, A Biography,rev. ed.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987.
Marcuse, Herbert (1898–1979) German Marx-
ist thinker and Critical Theory founder
As part of the FRANKFURT SCHOOLof MARXISTS, Marcuse
rejected the strict Soviet orthodoxy that focused on
economic class analysis to explain all social problems.
Drawing on Karl Marx’s early Economic and Philosophic
Manuscripts, Marcuse emphasized other aspects of
society (notably abstract art and sex) for liberation
from the dominant oppression of CAPITALISTtechnolog-
ical RATIONALISM. Marcuse became the guru of the U.S.
1960s New LEFT, which challenged all conventional
morality and protested the Vietnam War.
A consequence of Marcuse’s modification of Marx-
ism’s historical materialism was to allow nonworkers
(middle-class intellectuals) to gain socialist praxis
through correct consciousness. This meant that uni-
versity professors could be the vanguard of the com-
munist revolution.
A German Jewish intellectual, Marcuse studied
with Martin HEIDEGGERat the University of Freiburg.
There, Marcuse wrote extensively on the DIALECTICof
HEGELbut was forced to leave Germany with the rise of
the NAZI FASCISTstate led by HITLER. He immigrated to
the United States, where he taught at Brandeis Univer-
sity and the University of California.
Further Readings
MacIntyre, Alasdair C. Herbert Marcuse: An Exposition and a
Polemic.Frank Kermode, ed. New York: Viking Press, 1970.
Schoolman, M. The Imaginary Witness: The Critical Theory of
Herbert Marcuse.New York: Free Press, 1980.
Marshall, John (1755–1835) American jurist,
statesman, and Federalist
Most famous as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court, Marshall developed the U.S. federal judiciary
(courts) into a powerful branch of national govern-
ment through his doctrine of judicial review. Under
Chief Justice Marshall’s leadership, the U.S. Supreme
Court assumed the POWERto review federal congres-
sional statutes and executive (presidential) actions. By
giving itself the power to interpret the founding docu-
ment of the government (the U.S. CONSTITUTION), Mar-
shall made the Supreme Court a premier institution in
the United States. This had the effect of making the
American national state more aristocratic because the
judges (justices) of the Supreme Court (usually only
nine) are not elected by the people but are appointed
by the president for life tenure (permanently).
A staunch FEDERALIST, Marshall used this expansion
of Supreme Court power explained in the case ruling
of Marbur y v. Madison(1803) to increase the power of
the national government over the states. In the
Supreme Court cases of Gibbon’s v. Ogden(1824) and
McCulloch v. Maryland(1819), Marshall used the U.S.
constitutional “commerce clause” to expand federal
jurisdiction over state economic regulation. This
brought him into IDEOLOGICALconflict with Thomas
JEFFERSON, who feared excessive concentration of polit-
ical power in the central regime and in the Supreme
Court. Jeffersonian DEMOCRACY preferred the more
democratic levels of government (the states) and
branches of government (legislature). Marshall also
was associated with the wealthier classes of U.S. soci-
ety and interpreted the Constitution to protect private
property through the “contract clause” (Dartmouth
College Case, 1819) against state regulation.
John Marshall was born into humble circum-
stances and received little formal education, but
through hard work and a keen intellect, he rose in
U.S. government and national prestige. He is still con-
sidered to be the greatest Supreme Court justice in
history. He read the law and was admitted to the Vir-
ginia bar in 1780, served in the Virginia assembly, was
commissioner to France, congressman, secretary of
state, and finally chief justice of the Supreme Court. A
long and distinguished career included his literary
production of a biography of George Washington and
an autobiography.Further Readings
Beveridge, Albert Jeremiah. The Life of John Marshall.Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1944.
Konefsky, Samuel Joseph. John Marshall and Alexander Hamilton,
Architects of the American Constitution.New York: Macmil-
lan, 1964.
Newmyer, R. Kent. The Supreme Court under Marshall and Taney.
Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1968.200 Marcuse, Herbert