 Innis also tried to defend universities from political and economic pressures . He believed that independent universities , as centres of critical thought , were essential to the survival of Western civilization . His intellectual disciple and university colleague , Marshall McLuhan , lamented Innis 's premature death as a disastrous loss for human understanding . McLuhan wrote : " I am pleased to think of my own book The Gutenberg Galaxy as a footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences , first of writing then of printing . " 
 Innis also tried to defend universities from political and economic pressures . He believed that independent universities , as centres of critical thought , <a href='uninflect' title='1'><mark>were</mark></a> essential to the survival of Western civilization . His intellectual disciple and university colleague , Marshall McLuhan , lamented Innis <a href='null_genetive' title='2'><mark>'s</mark></a>premature death as a disastrous loss for human understanding . McLuhan wrote : " I am pleased to think of my own book The Gutenberg Galaxy as a footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences , first of writing then of printing . " 
Innis also tried to defend universities from political and economic pressures . He believed dat independent universities , as centres of critical thought , was essential to da survival of Western civilization . His intellectual disciple and university colleague , Marshall McLuhan , lamented Innis  premature death as a disastrous loss for human understanding . McLuhan wrote : " I am pleased to think of my own book TdaGutenberg Galaxy as a footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences , first of writing then of printing . "