The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (Routledge Classics) [Paperback]

Theodor W. Adorno (Author), J. M. Bernstein (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415253802 | ISBN-13: 978-0415253802 | Publication Date: May 30, 2001 | Edition: 2

The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture industry commodified and standardized all art. In turn this suffocated individuality and destroyed critical thinking. At the time, Adorno was accused of everything from overreaction to deranged hysteria by his many detractors. In today's world, where even the least cynical of consumers is aware of the influence of the media, Adorno's work takes on a more immediate significance. The Culture Industry is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A volume of Adorno's essays is equivalent to a whole shelf of books on literature.
–Susan Sontag

Adorno expounds what may be called a new philosophy of consciousness. His philosophy lives, dangerously but also fruitfully, in proximity to an ascetic puritanical moral rage, an attachment to some items in the structure and vocabulary of Marxism, and a feeling that human suffering is the only important thing and makes nonsense of everything else ... Adorno is a political thinker who wishes to bring about radical change. He is also a philosopher, with a zest for metaphysics, who is at home in the western philosophical tradition.
–Iris Murdoch

About the Author

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69). One of the towering intellectual figures of the twentieth century, and a leading member of the influential group of theorists known as the Frankfurt School. His works include Aesthetic Theory, Mahler, The Jargon of Authenticity and Negative Dialectics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (May 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415253802
• ISBN-13: 978-0415253802
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Critique of Mass-Culture Par Excellence, August 25, 2007

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Harumi O. Moruzzi "hopingforpeaceandharmony" (Olympia, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

In our banal age when sanctimonious platitude is often mistaken for wisdom or even ethical character, Adorno's mercilessly uncompromising analyses of the controlling nature of mass culture may initially strike some of us as exaggerated or hysterical initially. After all most of us now bear the consequence of lengthy habituation to our socio-economic situation: a chronic semi-conscious, autopilot behavioral and perceptive mode that can comprehend only the pre-digested, repetitive ideas or ways of thinking. However, once we start reading Adorno more attentively and thoughtfully we realize how prescient and perspicacious Adorno was as a critic of our modern society and culture. Many of his thoughts articulated in this volume anticipate the thoughts and writings of our leading contemporary thinkers, such as Jean Baudrillard, Frederic Jameson, and even Noam Chomsky (although he probably disagrees with Adorno's attitude toward culture, which may be construed as elitist).

I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to escape the mass-culture induced stupor to become a more conscious human and citizen.

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably insightful, yet a little too big on modern art ..., November 22, 2006

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B. Niece "wannabe postmodernist" (indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

The title of this review says much of it. Several essays in this book are dated in their literal forms, but your mind will take the ideas Adorno gives and apply them to your own experience. I don't know about ya'll, but I've found many of my new sensibilities about one thing while reading or otherwise interacting about something I would have considered entirely separated from the other.

My advice: read the intro twice: once through quickly and a second slowly and thoroughly; though I give that advice about many books, the intro to this book is vital to having a context to put the essays into.

9 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging, November 2, 2007

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Lenard Andrei "student" (Romania-EU) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

This collection of essays is very interesting. They all cover a critique of mass culture with quite original and interesting points made.

Sometimes it is bit difficult to read, this might be due to the translation; for this reason it gets only 4 stars. However, if you think you are ok with a moderately complicated text, the book is really great. I am glad I have read it.