Marshall McLuhan
Canadian philosopher and father of media studies.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher, helped lay the groundwork for media theory. He grew up in Winnipeg and attended the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. Often called "the father of media studies," he popularized the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village," and he foresaw the World Wide Web nearly three decades before its creation.
McLuhan was born on July 21, 1911, in Edmonton, Alberta, taking his middle name from his maternal grandmother. His younger brother Maurice arrived two years later. Both parents were Canadian: his mother, Elsie Naomi Hall, was a Baptist teacher who later acted, and his father, Herbert Ernest McLuhan, was a Methodist who ran a real-estate business in Edmonton. When that business failed early in World War I, his father joined the Canadian Army. After a year, he caught influenza and stayed in Canada, never reaching the front. Following his discharge in 1915, the family moved to Winnipeg, where Marshall attended Kelvin Technical School and, in 1928, enrolled at the University of Manitoba.
After a year as an engineering student, he switched to the arts, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1933 and winning a University Gold Medal. He then completed a Master of Arts in English at Manitoba in 1934. Long wanting to study in England, he was accepted by Trinity Hall, Cambridge, after failing to secure a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. Because Cambridge required him to enter as an affiliated undergraduate, he studied under I. A. Richards and F. R. Leavis, absorbing New Criticism. He later said this training in perception and concepts like "feedforward" shaped his later work on technology. He received his Cambridge bachelor's degree in 1936 and entered the graduate program.
At Manitoba, McLuhan had turned to literature to satisfy a spiritual hunger, later calling that period agnosticism. At Cambridge, reading G. K. Chesterton led him toward Catholicism. In 1935, he wrote to his mother that Chesterton prevented his despair from hardening into misanthropy and opened his eyes to European culture. By March 1937, he was formally received into the Catholic Church. His father accepted the decision, but his mother feared it would harm his career. McLuhan remained devout but private about his faith, occasionally linking it to media—comparing satellites to the Star of Bethlehem—and maintaining a lifelong interest in the number three.
Unable to find work in Canada, he took a teaching assistant position at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for 1936–1937. From 1937 to 1944, he taught English at Saint Louis University, with a break in 1939–1940 to return to Cambridge. There he taught Shakespeare and befriended Walter J. Ong, who later wrote a dissertation on a topic McLuhan suggested. In St. Louis, he met Corinne Lewis, a teacher and aspiring actress from Texas; they married on August 4, 1939. The couple spent 1939–1940 in Cambridge, where he completed his master's degree (awarded January 1940) and began a doctoral dissertation on Thomas Nashe and the verbal arts. Because World War II had erupted, he got permission to submit the dissertation from the United States without an oral defense. In 1940, they returned to Saint Louis University.
- born
- July 21, 1911, Edmonton, Alberta
- died
- December 31, 1980
- field
- Media theory, philosophy
- nationality
- Canadian
- known_for
- Coining 'the medium is the message' and 'global village'; predicting the World W
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
McLuhan was born on July 21, 1911, in Edmonton, Alberta. After his father's real-estate business failed at the start of World War I, the family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Marshall grew up and attended Kelvin Technical School before enrolling at the University of Manitoba in 1928. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1933, winning a University Gold Medal in Arts and Sciences, and a Master of Arts degree in English in 1934. He then studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, enrolling as an undergraduate 'affiliated' student in 1934, studying under I. A. Richards and F. R. Leavis. He received his bachelor's degree from Cambridge in 1936. While at Cambridge, he converted to Catholicism in March 1937, influenced by reading G. K. Chesterton, who 'prevented my despair from becoming a habit.' He taught at Saint Louis University from 1937 to 1944, where he tutored and befriended Walter J. Ong. He married Corinne Lewis on August 4, 1939, and they had six children: Eric, twins Mary and Teresa, Stephanie, Elizabeth, and Michael. He completed his doctoral dissertation on Thomas Nashe and the verbal arts, receiving his PhD in December 1943. He taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario, from 1944 to 1946, then moved to the University of Toronto in 1946, joining St. Michael's College. In 1963, the University of Toronto created the Centre for Culture and Technology to keep him from moving to another institute. He was a fixture in media discourse in the late 1960s, though his influence began to wane in the early 1970s. In 1970, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He suffered a stroke in September 1979 that affected his ability to speak, and died in his sleep on December 31, 1980. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Markham, Ontario.
Reader's Guide
McLuhan's significance lies in his foundational contributions to media theory, particularly his insight that 'the medium is the message,' which he introduced in the first chapter of his book *Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man*. He also coined the term 'global village.' He predicted the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was invented. His early work *The Mechanical Bride* (1951) examines the effect of advertising on society and culture. In the 1950s, he and Edmund Carpenter produced the academic journal *Explorations*, and together with Harold Innis, Eric A. Havelock, and Northrop Frye, they have been characterized as the Toronto School of communication theory. McLuhan wrote in 1964 that his book *The Gutenberg Galaxy* was 'a footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences, first of writing then of printing.' After his death, with the arrival of the Internet and the World Wide Web, interest was renewed in his work and perspectives. He remains a controversial figure in academic circles, but his work continues to be a cornerstone of media studies.
Did You Know?
- McLuhan was named 'Marshall' from his maternal grandmother's surname.
- He converted to Catholicism in 1937 after reading G. K. Chesterton, who he said 'prevented my despair from becoming a habit.'
- He had a lifelong interest in the number three, such as the trivium and the Trinity, and sometimes said the Virgin Mary provided intellectual guidance for him.
- McLuhan supervised the doctoral thesis of modernist writer Sheila Watson on the subject of Wyndham Lewis.
- In 1975, the University of Dallas hosted him from April to May, appointing him to the McDermott Chair.
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