Marshall Howard Berman (November 23, 1940–September 11, 2013) was an

American philosopher This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States. {, border="0" style="margin:auto;" class="toccolours" , - ! {{MediaWiki:Toc , - , style="text-al ...

and

Marxist humanist Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...

writer. He was a Distinguished Professor of

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

The City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City ...

and at the

Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the C ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

, teaching

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

and

urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and m ...

Life and work

Marshall Berman was born in New York City on November 24, 1940, and spent his childhood in Tremont, then a predominately Jewish neighborhood of the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

. His parents Betty and Murray Berman (both children of Jewish Eastern European immigrants) owned the Betmar Tag and Label Company. His father died of a heart attack at age 48 in the autumn of 1955, shortly after the family had moved to the Kingsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx. Berman attended the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

, and was an

alumnus Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, receiving a

Bachelor of Letters Bachelor of Letters (BLitt or LittB; Latin ' or ') is a second undergraduate university degree in which students specialize in an area of study relevant to their own personal, professional, or academic development. This area of study may have been t ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

where he was a student of

Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

. Berman completed his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1968. He began working at City College in 1968 where he taught until his death. He was on the editorial board of ''

Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

'' and a regular contributor to ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', ''Bennington Review'', ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

'', '' New Politics'' and the '' Voice Literary Supplement''. In ''Adventures in Marxism'', Berman tells of how, while a

student in 1959, the chance discovery of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's ''

Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 The ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' (german: Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844), also referred to as the ''Paris Manuscripts'' (') or as the ''1844 Manuscripts'', are a series of notes written between Apri ...

'' proved a revelation and inspiration, and became the foundation for all his future work. This personal tone pervades his work, linking historical trends with individual observations and inflections from a particular situation. Berman is best known for his book '' All That Is Solid Melts into Air''. Some of his other books include ''The Politics of Authenticity'', ''Adventures in Marxism'', ''On the Town: A Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square'' (2006). His final publication was the "Introduction" to the

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western ...

edition of ''

The Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...

''. Also in the 2000s, Berman co-edited (with Brian Berger) an anthology, ''New York Calling: From Blackout To Bloomberg'', for which he wrote the introductory essay. Berman also was a participant in Ric Burns' landmark eight-part documentary titled ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

''. He died on September 11, 2013, of a heart attack. According to friend and fellow author

Todd Gitlin Todd Alan Gitlin (January 6, 1943 – February 5, 2022) was an American sociologist, political activist and writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He wrote about the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular an ...

, Berman suffered the heart attack while eating at one of his favorite Upper West Side restaurants, the Metro Diner.

Modernity and modernism

During the mid- to late 20th century, philosophical discourse focused on issues of

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...

and the cultural attitudes and philosophies towards the modern condition. Berman put forward his own definition of

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

to counter ''postmodern'' philosophies. Berman's view of modernism is at odds with

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

. Paraphrasing

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...

defined the attitude of modernity as "the ironic heroization of the present." Berman viewed postmodernism as a soulless and hopeless

echo chamber Echo chamber of the Dresden University of Technology Hamilton Mausoleum has a long-lasting unplanned echo An echo chamber is a hollow enclosure used to produce reverberation, usually for recording purposes. For example, the producers of a ...

. He addressed this specifically in his Preface to the 1988 reprint of ''All That Is Solid Melts Into Air'': Berman's view of modernism also conflicts with

anti-modernism Anti-modernization (also known as anti-modernisation or retraditionalisation),Boris Rumer, Rumer, Boris (2005).''Central Asia at the End of the Transition''(via Google Books). Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. . is "a societal and cultural reaction ...

according to critic

George Scialabba George Scialabba (born 1948) is a freelance book critic living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His reviews have appeared in ''Agni'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''Dissent'', the ''Virginia Quarterly Review'', ''The Nation'', ''The American Prospect'', and ...

, who is persuaded by Berman's critique of postmodernism but finds the challenge posed by the anti-modernists to be more problematic. Scialabba admires Berman's stance as a writer and thinker, calling him "earnest and a democrat", and capable of withstanding the anti-modernist challenge as it has been posed by the likes of

Christopher Lasch Robert Christopher Lasch (June 1, 1932 – February 14, 1994) was an American historian, moralist and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester. He sought to use history to demonstrate what he saw as the pervasiven ...

and

Jackson Lears T. J. Jackson Lears (born 1947) is an American cultural and intellectual historian with interests in comparative religious history, literature and the visual arts, folklore and folk beliefs. Christopher Caldwell describes Lears' vision of American ...

. But Scialabba also believes that Berman "never fully faces up to the possibility of

nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

." Berman has also contributed unique interpretations of the term "

creative destruction Creative destruction (German: ''schöpferische Zerstörung'') is a concept in economics which since the 1950s is the most readily identified with the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter who derived it from the work of Karl Marx and pop ...

", such as in ''All That is Solid'', particularly in the chapter entitled "Innovative Self-Destruction" (pp. 98–104). Here, Berman provides a reading of Marxist "creative destruction" to explain key processes at work within modernity. In 2021, an article was published by Berman's younger son Daniel Berman which attempted to apply to the field of art history, the elder Berman's conception of creative destruction as communicated through his final public lecture "''Emerging from the Ruins''" (May 2013, Lewis Mumford Lecture @ CCNY). Th
article
entitled "''Looking the Negative in the Face: Creative Destruction and the Modern Spirit in Photography, Photomontage, and Collage''", was published in the second issue of Hunter College's graduate art history journa
Assemblage

Bibliography

*''The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society'' (1970) Reissued 2009 by Verso Press *'' All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity
download
(1982) *''Adventures in Marxism'' (1999) *''On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square'' (2006) *''New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg'' (2007), edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger. *"Introduction" to ''

'' by Karl Marx, Penguin Books 2010 *''Modernism in the Streets: A Life and Times in Essays'', edited by David Marcus and Shellie Sclan, Verso Press 2017

Notes

References

External links

* *Marshall Berman
''Freedom and Fetishism''
1963 *Marshall Berman

* ttps://archive.today/20130414171444/http://eserver.org/clogic/4-2/monchinski_berman.html An Interview with Marshall BermanInterviewed by Tony Monchinski
Marshall Berman's Love Affair With Marx
by

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Marshall 1940 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers 20th-century American Jews American Marxists American non-fiction writers American socialists City University of New York faculty City College of New York faculty Graduate Center, CUNY faculty Columbia College (New York) alumni Harvard University alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Jewish socialists American literary critics Critics of postmodernism Marxist humanists Marxist theorists Marxist writers New York (state) socialists American political scientists Urban theorists Writers from the Bronx Philosophers from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews