ABSTRACT
This book brings together different texts written by Theodor Adorno between the late 1930s and the mid-1950s. These diverse pieces by Adorno are underpinned by a (more-or-less) consistent and coherent account of the powerful tendencies towards authoritarianism and irrationalism operative in mid-twentieth century Western culture. The account of authoritarianism and anti-Semitism developed by Adorno and other members of the Institute of Social Research in the 1940s is heavily dependent upon Freudian theory. Adorno’s twin theses state that authoritarian irrationalism lies at the core of enlightened modernity and that the culture industry implicated in authoritarian irrationalism have a legitimate claim on the attention of students of contemporary culture. Adorno’s account of the modernity of authoritarian irrationalism is a powerful and disturbing complement to Bauman’s account of the modernity of the Holocaust. Adorno himself draws attention to the role which the provision of “information” plays in the workings of the culture industry, in its “high” as well as “low” niches.
