The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture industry commodified and standardized all art. In turn this suffocated individuality and destroyed critical thinking. At the time, Adorno was accused of everything from overreaction to deranged hysteria by his many detractors. In today's world, where even the least cynical of consumers is aware of the influence of the media, Adorno's work takes on a more immediate significance. The Culture Industry is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture.

CONTENTS:

A cknowledgements I ntroduction -- On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening -- The Schema of Mass Culture -- Culture Industry Reconsidered -- Culture and Administration -- Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda -- How to Look at Television -- Transparencies on Film -- Free Time -- Resignation -- Name I ndex S ubject I ndex

AUTHOR:

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69). One of the towering intellectual figures of the twentieth century, and a leading member of the influential group of critical theorists known as the Frankfurt School. His works include Aesthetic Theory, Mahler, The Jargon of Authenticity and Negative Dialectics.