Lectures 1949-1968, Volume 2

“A perfect introduction to some of his most important ideas concerning free will, self-determination, and the persistence and influence of authoritarian structures in democratic and capitalistic systems.”Eric J. Weiner, 3 Quarks Daily

Theodor W. Adorno was one of the leading philosophers and critical theorists of the twentieth century. A brilliant philosopher and social thinker, Adorno was a founding member of the Frankfurt School and he played a crucial role in reformulating Marxism, moving it away from what he and his colleague Max Horkheimer saw as sterile economic determinism in order to stress the cultural and ethical factors that shape history and social life. Their co-authored book, Dialectic of Enlightenment, is a classic of modern social thought and a foundational text in critical theory. Adorno’s writings on the Culture Industry transformed our understanding of the ideological underpinnings of modernity and remain deeply influential in media and cultural studies. Having fled Nazism, he developed his thought in exile in the USA before returning to Frankfurt in 1949, where he remained until his death in 1969. He maintained an astonishingly varied set of intellectual interests throughout his life, ranging from philosophy to music, film, art and literature. Polity has published over a dozen books by Adorno, including much of his correspondence and the many volumes of his lectures which are being published posthumously in Germany.