The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism [Paperback]

This book explores the ways in which the Jewish backgrounds of leading Frankfurt School Critical Theorists shaped their lives, work, and ideas.This book investigates how the Jewish backgrounds of major Critical Theorists, and the differing ways in which they related to their origins, impacted their work, the history of the Frankfurt School, and the difference that emerged between them over time.This book investigates how the Jewish backgrounds of major Critical Theorists, and the differing ways in which they related to their origins, impacted their work, the history of the Frankfurt School, and the difference that emerged between them over time.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. & The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism is in part biographically based, revealing the essence of thinkers' hearts and lives while avoiding anecdotal trivia & thanl3è