This book investigates the intellectual continuity between Martin Heidegger and his student Herbert Marcuse, questioning the extent to which Marcuse truly abandoned existentialism for Marxism. Andrew Feenberg, a scholar of critical theory, utilizes previously unpublished manuscripts and early lecture notes to challenge the conventional narrative of a clean break between the two thinkers. He argues that Marcuse’s project of radical critical theory was fundamentally shaped by his early engagement with Heideggerian concepts, suggesting a deeper, more persistent philosophical entanglement than previously acknowledged in academic discourse.

Scholars recognize this work as a significant contribution to the understanding of twentieth-century continental philosophy. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous re-evaluation of the historical split between existentialism and Marxism.