This is the definitive study of the history and accomplishments of the Frankfurt School. It offers elegantly written portraits of the major figures in the school's history as well as overviews of the various positions and directions they developed from the founding years just after World War I until the death of Theodor Adorno in 1969.The book is based on documentary and biographical materials that have only recently become available. As the narrative follows the Institute for Social Research from Frankfurt am Main to Geneva, New York, and Los Angeles, and then back to Frankfurt, Wiggershaus continually ties the evolution of the school to the changing intellectual and political contexts in which it operated. He also interweaves these accounts with incisive summaries of substantive works by Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, Fromm, Kirchheimer, Lowenthal, Marcuse, Neumann, Pollock, and Habermas.The book is self-contained and can serve as a general introduction to critical theory, but it also has a wealth of new material to offer those who are familiar with this tradition but would like to learn more about its history and context.Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought
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"Compulsory reading for anyone wanting to study or writeabout the Frankfurt School." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Rolf Wiggershaus's monumental study of the Frankfurt Schoolprovides the best overall view of its entire trajectory....[The book] is an absolute must for anyone interested incontemporary social theory and politics." Douglas Kellner
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This review is from: The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought) (Paperback)
Wiggershouse provides, with depth and precision, a chronological account of the history of the Institute of Social Research -"The Frankfurt School" - from its founding in 1924 to Adorno's death in 1969 (an Afterword briefly describes that happened to the critical theory school in Germany up to the mid 1980's). Appropriately, the book's emphasis is on the ideas of the Frankfurt School's theoreticians; the inclusion of factual episodes and brief biographies serve mainly to guide the reader through the convergences and divergences between the ideas moving around critical theory. Among the many virtues of the book, is the attention given to lesser known theoreticians associated with the Institute, such as Friedrich Pollock, Franz Neumann, and Otto Kirchheimer. Another virtue is that Wiggershouse does not attempt to elect "heroes" within this fascinating group of thinkers. Quite the contrary. Max Horkheimer, though depicted as a creative thinker, emerges from the book pages with a dubious character. Horkheimer's claims in favor of an interdisciplinary research program contrast with his attitudes as the Institute's director. The episode involving Habermas' exit from the Institute is exemplar of Horkheimer's rather intolerant personality. Theodor Adorno, described in all his intellectual brilliance, appears as the genius who voluntarily chose to stay under Horkheimer's shadow and who, at the heat of the student's movement in the late 60's in Germany, took an "ivory tower" type of attitude. The book has only one noticeable flaw (if one can regard it as such). Though the emphasis on the ideas is what makes the book extremely interesting, Wiggershaus is not always successful in clarifying them. For instance, for readers not familiar with Adorno's aesthetics theory, Wiggershaus' presentation is not very helpful. Nevertheless, all in all, Wiggershaus' book is definitely "the" reference book for students of critical theory.
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'Frankfurt School' and 'Critical Theory': if the terms evoke more than just the idea of a particular paradigm in social science, they will trigger memories of a string of names - starting with Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and Habermas - and associations with the student movement of the 1960s, the 'positivist dispute', the critique of culture - and perhaps also German emigres, the Third Reich, Jews, the Weimar Republic, Marxism and psychoanalysis. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
analytical social psychology, dialectics project, wollte ich nie, mimeographed volume, instinctual structure, radio research project, musique informelle, fascist agitators, critical social research, fascism scale, failed civilization, dialectics book, empirical social research, subterranean history, positivist dispute, demand for happiness, fascist character, fetish character, student opposition, commodity character, basic stimulus, bourgeois period, other émigrés Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Institute of Social Research, United States, Los Angeles, West German, Communist Party, Felix Weil, Social Democratic, Columbia University, Federal Republic, Productive Decay, Frankfurt University, Social Democrats, Soviet Union, Leo Lowenthal, Eclipse of Reason, Minima Moralia, First World War, Philosophical Fragments, Frankfurt Institute, Max Horkheimer, American Jewish Committee, Third Reich, Rockefeller Foundation, Sociology Department New!
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'Frankfurt School' and 'Critical Theory': if the terms evoke more than just the idea of a particular paradigm in social science, they will trigger memories of a string of names - starting with Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and Habermas - and associations with the student movement of the 1960s, the 'positivist dispute', the critique of culture - and perhaps also German emigres, the Third Reich, Jews, the Weimar Republic, Marxism and psychoanalysis. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
analytical social psychology, dialectics project, wollte ich nie, mimeographed volume, instinctual structure, radio research project, musique informelle, fascist agitators, critical social research, fascism scale, failed civilization, dialectics book, empirical social research, subterranean history, positivist dispute, demand for happiness, fascist character, fetish character, student opposition, commodity character, basic stimulus, bourgeois period, other émigrés Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Institute of Social Research, United States, Los Angeles, West German, Communist Party, Felix Weil, Social Democratic, Columbia University, Federal Republic, Productive Decay, Frankfurt University, Social Democrats, Soviet Union, Leo Lowenthal, Eclipse of Reason, Minima Moralia, First World War, Philosophical Fragments, Frankfurt Institute, Max Horkheimer, American Jewish Committee, Third Reich, Rockefeller Foundation, Sociology Department New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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93
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- The Cambridge Companion to Adorno (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) by Tom Huhn on 4 pages
- Stations of the Cross: Adorno and Christian Right Radio by Paul Apostolidis in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Dialectics of the Body: Corporeality in the Philosophy of Theodor Adorno (Studies in Philosophy) by Lisa Yun Lee in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism by Rick Kuhn in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Minimal Theologies: Critiques of Secular Reason in Adorno and Levinas by Hent de de Vries in Front Matter, page 31, and Back Matter
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