Lectures 1949-1968, Volume 2

Social Theory and Politics

Theodor W. Adorno (Frankfurt School), Nicholas Walker

$39.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Polity Press
31 March 2025

Social & political philosophy; Social theory; Political science & theory

When Theodor W. Adorno returned to Germany from his exile in the United States, he was appointed as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Frankfurt and he immediately made a name for himself as a leading public intellectual. Adorno’s widespread influence on the postwar debates was due in part to the public lectures he gave outside of the university in which he analysed and commented on social, cultural and political developments of the time.

This second volume brings together Adorno’s lectures given between 1949 and 1968 on social and political themes. With an engaging and improvisational style, Adorno spoke with infectious vigour about architecture and city planning, the relationship between the individual and society, the authoritarian personality and far-right extremism, political education and the current state of sociology, among other subjects. After Auschwitz, it was incumbent on Germany to undertake intensive memory work and to confront the reality of its own moral destruction, while rebuilding its political and economic systems. To rebuild was taken to mean rediscovery and looking outward, but Adorno also nurtured a vision of tradition which – far from being unthinkingly conservative – would attest to society’s honestly-appraised relationship to the past while it underwent the process of modernization. The volume illustrates Adorno’s deep commitment to holding society to standards commensurate with the aspirations of a modern world emerging from the horrors of war.

This volume of his lectures is a unique document of Adorno’s startling ability to bring critical theory into dialogue with the times in which he lived. It will be of great value to anyone interested in the work of Adorno and critical theory, in German intellectual and cultural history and in sociology and politics.

By: Theodor W. Adorno (Frankfurt School)
Translated by: Nicholas Walker
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 226mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 386g
ISBN: 9781509552429
ISBN 10: 1509552421
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 31 March 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Urban Architecture and the Social Order (1949) The Contemporary Relevance of Sociology (1951) On the Relationship between Individual and Society Today (1957) The Purpose of Education in Relation to Students and their Expectations (1957) Human Society Today (1957) The Authoritarian Personality (1960) The Unity of Research and Teaching in the Social Conditions of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1961) Is Superstition Harmless? (1963) The Concept of Political Education (1963) Aspects of the New Right-Wing Extremism (1967) Editor’s Notes Index

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.