Editing Old Left (section)

== Emergence of the New Left ==
The [[New Left]] arose first among dissenting intellectuals and campus groups in the United Kingdom and later alongside campuses in the United States and in the [[Western bloc]].

The German critical theorist [[Herbert Marcuse]] is referred to as the "Father of the New Left". Marcuse rejected the theory of class struggle and the [[Marxist]] concern with [[Labour economics|labor]]. According to [[Leszek Kołakowski]], Marcuse argued that since "all questions of material existence have been solved, moral commands and prohibitions are no longer relevant". He regarded the realization of man's erotic nature as the true liberation of humanity, which inspired the utopias of [[Jerry Rubin]] and others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kołakowski |first=Leszek |author-link=Leszek Kołakowski |title=Main Currents of Marxism |volume=III: The Breakdown |year=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0192851098|page=[https://archive.org/details/goldenagemaincur00lesz/page/416 416]|url=https://archive.org/details/goldenagemaincur00lesz/page/416}}</ref>

Between 1943 and 1950, Marcuse worked in U.S. government service for the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (predecessor of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]) and criticized the [[ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in the book ''[[Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis]]'' (1958). After his studies, in the 1960s and the 1970s he became known as the pre-eminent theorist of the New Left and the student movements of West Germany, France and the United States.

The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], through the [[Congress for Cultural Freedom]], funded various cultural organizations and magazines affiliated with the [[New Left]] that championed anti-communist ideas and Western values.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Imperialism |first=James PetrasTopics |date=1999-11-01 |title=Monthly Review {{!}} The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited |url=https://monthlyreview.org/1999/11/01/the-cia-and-the-cultural-cold-war-revisited/#:~:text=In%20Europe,%20the%20CIA%20was,in%20the%20CIA-subsidized%20journals. |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=Monthly Review |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lasch |first=Christopher |date=1991-04-01 |title=<scp>peter coleman</scp>. <i>The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Struggle for the Mind of Postwar Europe</i>. New York: Free Press. 1989. Pp. xiii, 333. $22.95 |url=https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/96.2.486 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=486 |doi=10.1086/ahr/96.2.486 |issn=1937-5239}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-06-16 |title=Studies in Intelligence |url=http://cia.gov/csi/studies/95unclass/Warner.html |access-date=2025-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616213245/http://cia.gov/csi/studies/95unclass/Warner.html |archive-date=16 June 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-09-03 |title=Thomas Braden |work=Spartacus Educational |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbraden.htm |access-date=2025-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903135645/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbraden.htm |archive-date=3 September 2009 }}</ref>