The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism

This book explores the ways in which the Jewish backgrounds of leading Frankfurt School Critical Theorists shaped their lives, work, and ideas.

Jack Jacobs (Author)

9780521730273, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 June 2016

278 pages
23 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.33 kg

'Jack Jacobs's The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism will be a major resource for many of us working in Critical Theory. Even-handed, clearly presented, and extensively researched, with seventy-eight pages of footnotes, the book's overarching thesis is both simple and urgent … Jacobs's book offers scholars an enduring resource in future work on the Jewishness of the Frankfurt School …' Joan Braune, Critical Research on Religion

The history of the Frankfurt School cannot be fully told without examining the relationships of Critical Theorists to their Jewish family backgrounds. Jewish matters had significant effects on key figures in the Frankfurt School, including Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Leo Lowenthal and Herbert Marcuse. At some points, their Jewish family backgrounds clarify their life paths; at others, these backgrounds help to explain why the leaders of the School stressed the significance of antisemitism. In the post-Second World War era, the differing relationships of Critical Theorists to their Jewish origins illuminate their distinctive stances toward Israel. This book investigates how the Jewish backgrounds of major Critical Theorists, and the ways in which they related to their origins, impacted upon their work, the history of the Frankfurt School, and differences that emerged among them over time.

Introduction
1. Jewish life paths and the Institute of Social Research in the Weimar Republic
2. The Institute of Social Research and the significance of antisemitism: the exile years
3. Critical theorists and the state of Israel
4. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Jewish studies [JFSR1], History of ideas [JFCX], Cultural studies [JFC], Religion: general [HRA], Social & political philosophy [HPS], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP], History [HB], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature & literary studies [D]