Marshall McLuhan (1911 to 1980) was a professor of English at the University of Toronto who became one of the world’s best-known media thinkers. The university created the Centre for Culture and Technology for him in 1963, and his book Understanding Media (1964) made the phrase “the medium is the message” famous. He died in Toronto on December 31, 1980.
From Edmonton to Toronto
Herbert Marshall McLuhan was born on July 21, 1911, in Edmonton, Alberta. The Canadian Encyclopedia and Britannica both give that date. He grew up in Edmonton and Winnipeg and studied at the University of Manitoba. He then went to Cambridge, where he earned a doctorate in English literature in 1943 with a dissertation on the Elizabethan writer Thomas Nashe.
He joined the Department of English at St. Michael’s College, a Catholic college federated with the University of Toronto. Sources give 1946 and 1947 for his arrival. The University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher library says 1946, while the university’s Representative Poetry Online site gives 1947. Either way, he remained at St. Michael’s for the rest of his career. The wider story of the institution is told in the article on the University of Toronto.
Early books
His first major book was The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951), an examination of advertising and popular culture. The University of Toronto Magazine notes that he worked on the magazine Explorations and on a Ford Foundation project about the media environment during the early era of television. Those projects brought him together with colleagues from other fields in Toronto.
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man followed in 1962. Britannica describes it as an exploration of how the invention of the printing press and the rise of typography transformed human consciousness and society. A year later, the university took a step that formalized his work.
The Centre for Culture and Technology
In 1963 the University of Toronto established the Centre for Culture and Technology, with McLuhan as director. The University of Toronto Magazine says it was created for him to lead. The Representative Poetry Online biography also gives 1963. According to the library’s archival description, the centre studied the psychic and social effects of technology and media, with a focus on sensory perception and communications, and it offered courses.
For its first years the centre was little more than a title. In 1968 it moved into a coach house, and McLuhan worked there for the last decade of his life, according to the University of Toronto Magazine. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the centre is known as the Coach House and is now the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology. A McLuhan Collection was founded at the university’s Faculty of Information in March 1995.
The University of Toronto Magazine describes the main room of the coach house as nearly empty today. It says the chaise longue on which McLuhan lay during seminars is still there. The same article records the nicknames and terms that grew up around him, including “Sage of Aquarius” for the man, “all-at-onceness” for the experience of electronic media, and the “Marconi Constellation” as the electronic counterpart to his “Gutenberg Galaxy.” These terms show how he mixed scholarship with a taste for striking phrases.
Understanding Media and the main ideas
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man appeared in 1964. The Canadian Encyclopedia says it made his reputation worldwide, and Britannica calls it his best-known critical assessment of modern technology. The phrase “the medium is the message” is the title of the first chapter. It means that the form of a medium shapes perception and society in ways that matter more than the particular content it carries. Television, for example, changes how people receive information regardless of the programme.
Three other ideas are tied to his name.
- Hot and cool media. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes a distinction between high-definition (hot) and low-definition (cool) media.
- The global village. He used the term for a world connected by electronic media. The Canadian Encyclopedia reports that he warned the global village would not be peaceful. He developed this in War and Peace in the Global Village (1968), written with Quentin Fiore.
- Probes. The University of Toronto Magazine says he used the word for short, aphoristic ideas that he tested on students and colleagues.
In 1967 came The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, a title that plays on the earlier phrase.
McLuhan and the city
His ideas about the effect of technology on cities reached the street level in Toronto. In the campaign against the Spadina Expressway, the Canadian Encyclopedia reports, he warned that Toronto would “commit suicide” if the road went through the heart of the city. He also made a documentary film, The Burning Would, with Jane Jacobs, and it was shown across North America. The province withdrew its support for the road on June 3, 1971; the full story is in the article on how the Spadina Expressway was cancelled.
McLuhan wrote about newspapers, television and advertising, and Toronto had its own large daily papers during his career. Readers interested in the city’s press can start with the articles on the Toronto Star and the Toronto Telegram.
Honours, death and legacy
McLuhan held the Schweitzer Chair at Fordham University in New York in 1967. He became a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1970, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, and received an honorary degree from the University of Toronto in 1977.
He died in Toronto on December 31, 1980. After his death his reputation faded for a time, as the University of Toronto Magazine puts it. Interest returned in the 1990s, when Wired magazine promoted him as a patron saint of the internet. In 2011 the university marked the centenary of his birth with events, including a conference called “McLuhan 100: Then, Now, Next” in November. The Coach House is now the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology.
Frequently asked questions
When did Marshall McLuhan join the University of Toronto?
Sources give 1946 or 1947 for his start in the English department at St. Michael’s College. He stayed at the university for the rest of his career.
What was the Centre for Culture and Technology?
It was a research centre set up by the University of Toronto in 1963 with McLuhan as director. It studied the social effects of media and technology and moved into a coach house in 1968.
What does “the medium is the message” mean?
It is the title of the first chapter of Understanding Media (1964). The idea is that the form of a medium changes society more than the content it carries.
When did Marshall McLuhan die?
He died in Toronto on December 31, 1980.
Sources
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Marshall McLuhan” (accessed October 2026)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Toronto Feature: Spadina Expressway” (accessed October 2026)
- University of Toronto Magazine, “Marshall’s Laws” (McLuhan centenary, accessed October 2026)
- Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto Libraries, “Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)” (accessed October 2026)
- Britannica, “Marshall McLuhan” and “The Gutenberg Galaxy” (search summaries, accessed October 2026)
Related reading
- University of Toronto history
- Jane Jacobs in Toronto
- How the Spadina Expressway was cancelled
- Toronto Star history
- Toronto Telegram history
Last verified: November 2026
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, November 1). Marshall McLuhan in Toronto: The Medium Is the Message. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/marshall-mcluhan-toronto
MLA: “Marshall McLuhan in Toronto: The Medium Is the Message.” History of Toronto, 1 Nov 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/marshall-mcluhan-toronto. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Marshall McLuhan in Toronto: The Medium Is the Message.” Last modified November 1, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/marshall-mcluhan-toronto.
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