Charles Reitz

Charles Reitz is a radical social and political philosopher who regularly contributes to the ongoing discussion and development of critical social theory and critical pedagogy. His work serves as a countervailing force to conventional political and educational theory.He is the author of several publications on the political and educational philosophy of Herbert Marcuse.

In 2022 he completed a capstone political philosophical work, "The Revolutionary Ecological Legacy of Herbert Marcuse," which was published by Daraja Press, a not-for-profit, radical publisher based in Ottawa, Canada. In this Reitz argues EarthCommonWealth as an attainable socialist utopia characterized by racial equality, women's equality, the liberation of labor, the restoration of nature, leisure, abundance, and peace.

This was preceded be a 2019 volume "Ecology and Revolution: Herbert Marcuse and the Challenge of a New World System Today" which was published by Routledge. This volume similarly argued the necessity of a new world system, theorizing the workforce as a resource with strategic power.

Reitz's book, "Philosophy & Critical Pedagogy: Insurrection & Commonwealth," was released in 2016. Like critical philosophy, critical pedagogy is centrally concerned with the alleviation of suffering, resistance to oppressive power, building a social and historical context for understanding, and agency for emancipatory social change.

In August 2015 his edited collection, "Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren," appeared with Lexington Books in a paperback edition with a foreword by Peter McLaren.

In 2002 his first book, "Art, Alienation, and the Humanities: A Critical Engagement with Herbert Marcuse" (SUNY Press, 2000) received a Critics' Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association.

Reitz retired in 2006 as Professor of Philosophy and Social Science at Kansas City Kansas Community College, where he also served as Director of Multicultural Education and President of the Faculty Association (KNEA). He was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1946. He attended Canisius College, 1964-68, the University of Freiburg, Germany, 1969-71, and received his PhD in educational philosophy from the University of Buffalo in 1983. He is married to Roena L. Haynie, emerita professor and chair of Social Science at Avila University, Kansas City.