From Library Journal
The Frankfurt School remains a puzzle, its flickering importance hard to assess. In the Sixties, Herbert Marcuse became the darling of antiwar protesters; central figure Theodor Adorno fled in horror when his lectures were invaded by bare-breasted women protesting his "patriarchate"; and with aesthetics and politics again linked, Walter Benjamin has sparked much recent discussion. These very different thinkers were organized into a functioning group by Max Horkheimer, an academic administrator with remarkable fundraising skills. All were inspired by a Marx whom they related closely to Hegel, and all used some ideas and jargon from the phenomenological movement. Their chief remaining spokesman, J rgen Habermas, once Adorno's assistant, now preaches a kind of gentled capitalism that could be applauded by Gerhard Schroeder or Tony Blair. Schirmacher (German Socialist Philosophy) provides a brief but lucid introduction, and his selections raise the most central topics. A useful work for almost all academic and larger general collections.
-Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa, Ont. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
The Frankfurt School remains a puzzle, its flickering importance hard to assess. In the Sixties, Herbert Marcuse became the darling of antiwar protesters; central figure Theodor Adorno fled in horror when his lectures were invaded by bare-breasted women protesting his "patriarchate"; and with aesthetics and politics again linked, Walter Benjamin has sparked much recent discussion. These very different thinkers were organized into a functioning group by Max Horkheimer, an academic administrator with remarkable fundraising skills. All were inspired by a Marx whom they related closely to Hegel, and all used some ideas and jargon from the phenomenological movement. Their chief remaining spokesman, J rgen Habermas, once Adorno's assistant, now preaches a kind of gentled capitalism that could be applauded by Gerhard Schroeder or Tony Blair. Schirmacher (German Socialist Philosophy) provides a brief but lucid introduction, and his selections raise the most central topics. A useful work for almost all academic and larger general collections. (
Library Journal )
