Marshall McLuhan, the Man and his Message

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Topic spans: 1960 - 1980

Marshall McLuhan, the Man and his Message

He was a man of idioms and idiosyncrasies, deeply intelligent and a soothsayer. He had prescient knowledge of the Internet. Although educated in literature, Marshall McLuhan was known as a pop philosopher because his theories applied to mini-skirts and the twist. For his ability to keep up with the cutting edge, one colleague called him "The Runner." Critics said he destroyed literary values. Today, McLuhan's ideas are new again, applied to the electronic media that he predicted.

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McLuhan predicts 'world connectivity'

Broadcast Date: April 1, 1965

We waste too much time racing from home to office, says Marshall McLuhan, an English professor at the University of Toronto who's becoming known internationally for his study on the effects of media. Society's obsession with files and folders forces office workers to make the daily commute from the suburbs to downtown. McLuhan says the stockbroker is the smart one. He learned some time ago that most business may be conducted from anywhere if done by phone.

McLuhan's prescient knowledge: In the future, people will no longer only gather in classrooms to learn but will also be moved by "electronic circuitry."

McLuhan predicts 'world connectivity'

• McLuhan's prediction of a world connected by electronic circuits came true in 1995 when people around the globe began using the Internet, a secret computer network developed by the U.S. Defense Department in the 1970s. See a report about the resurgence of McLuhan's ideas with the advent of the Web.

• After completing a Masters of Arts degree at the University of Manitoba (1934) and a literature degree at Cambridge University (1936), McLuhan was unable to find work at a Canadian university. He left for the United States in 1936, accepting a position at the University of Wisconsin and a year later moved to the University of St. Louis.

• In 1939 McLuhan started his MA at Cambridge and by 1943 he completed his PhD in literature.
• McLuhan originally considered studying engineering but decided against it when he excelled in literature.

• McLuhan moved back to Canada in 1944 to teach at Assumption College, now the University of Windsor. Two years later he accepted a position at the University of Toronto's St. Michael's College, where he remained until he retired in 1979 after suffering a stroke.
• During his time at St. Michael's, he took a one-year sabbatical from 1967 to 1968, accepting a chair at New York's Fordham University.

McLuhan predicts 'world connectivity'

Medium: Television

Program: Take 30

Broadcast Date: April 1, 1965

Guest(s): Marshall McLuhan

Host: George Garlock, Paul Soles

Duration: 3:25

Last updated:
Aug. 19, 2008

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