Marshall McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger

Geoff Hayes is the director of International Studies Option at the
University of Waterloo.

Was Marshall McLuhan a genius or was he a product of the media world he
sought to understand? The author of this splendid biography argues that
he was a bit of both—and much more.

It was through his study of Thomas Nashe that McLuhan laid the basis of
his later work. His affiliation with the University of Toronto began in
1946, when he settled at St. Michael’s College. Though his writing was
often labored and confused, his energy and wealth of ideas attracted
attention. Corporate executives found him entertaining and provocative,
and, as the 1960s dawned, his views on the young, politics, and the
media seemed strangely prophetic. After winning a chair at Fordham in
1967, McLuhan became internationally famous. Television producers, movie
directors and politicians eagerly sought his advice; journalists and
other intellectuals often found him aggravating.

Marchand offers a nicely balanced treatment as he discusses the origins
of McLuhan’s ideas, as well as those of his many critics. He also
shows the links between McLuhan’s intellectual and private life.
Certainly, McLuhan’s last years were not kind. Along with his health,
his public and scholarly appeal declined in the 1970s; not even a cameo
appearance in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall could overcome a sense that he
was well past his prime. A serious stroke in 1979 robbed him of his
speech, and he died on New Year’s Eve, 1980.

Marchand is a sympathetic but honest biographer. He admits that
McLuhan’s books “presented difficulties even for well-disposed and
perceptive readers.” McLuhan’s real genius, Marchand believes, lay
in his “ability to stimulate.” It also evolved from his intuition
that, no matter what the new media brought about, “all manner of
things would be well.”