The Frankfurt School in Exile

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The Frankfurt School in Exile

Thomas Wheatland

Table of Contents

PRESS:
New Books in History interview
PopMatters review

OTHER:
Thomas Wheatland on Flaschenpost; Max Horkheimer; the Frankfurt School and his experience publishing this book. Posted on the University of Minnesota Press blog.

$39.95 cloth/jacket
ISBN: 978-0-8166-5367-6

Persuasive and pioneering research on the influence of German intellectuals on postwar American thought

Members of the Frankfurt School have had an enormous effect on Western thought, beginning soon after Max Horkheimer became the director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1930. Also known as the Horkheimer Circle, the group included such eminent intellectuals as Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Leo Lowenthal, and Friedrich Pollock. Fleeing Nazi oppression, Horkheimer moved the Institute and many of its affiliated scholars to Columbia University in 1934, where it remained until 1950.

Until now, the conventional portrayal of the Institute has held that its members found refuge by relocating to Columbia but that they had little contact with, or impact on, American intellectual life. With insight and clarity, Thomas Wheatland demonstrates that the standard account is wrong. Based on deep archival research in Germany and in the United States, and on interviews conducted with luminaries such as Daniel Bell, Bernadine Dohrn, Peter Gay, Todd Gitlin, Nathan Glazer, Tom Hayden, Robert Merton, and others, Wheatland skillfully traces the profound connections between the Horkheimer Circle’s members and the intellectual life of the era. Reassessing the group’s involvement with the American New Left in the 1960s, he argues that Herbert Marcuse’s role was misunderstood in shaping the radical student movement’s agenda. More broadly, he illustrates how the Circle influenced American social thought and made an even more dramatic impression on German postwar sociology.

Although much has been written about the Frankfurt School, this is the first book to closely examine the relationship between its members and their American contemporaries. The Frankfurt School in Exile uncovers an important but neglected dimension of the history of the Frankfurt School and adds immeasurably to our understanding of the contributions made by its émigrés to postwar intellectual life.

“More solid, albeit a bit more theoretical intellectual history of the period in which America grew up and joined the rest of the world. Worth the effort.” —Eric Alterman, The Nation

“An unusually thorough blend of intellectual and institutional history. [Wheatland’s] book ought to bring new attention to this highly suggestive part of the Frankfurt School’s story.” —Adam Kirsch, Tablet

Thomas Wheatland is assistant professor of German history at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

416 pages | 6 x 9 | 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface: Critical Theory and the United States

Introduction: A Brief History of the Frankfurt School before Its Arrival in the United States

Part I. Critical Theory on Morningside Heights
1. New York Transit: An Invitation to Columbia University

2. Failure and the Mythologies of Exile: The Frankfurt School’s Years at Columbia University

Part II. The Owl of Minerva Comes to New York
3. John Dewey’s Pit Bull: Sidney Hook and the Confrontation between Pragmatism and Critical Theory

4. Crosstown Traffic: The New York Intellectuals Encounter Critical Theory

Part III. Critical Theory and the Rise of Postwar Sociology
5. The Atlantic Divide: Building Bridges between Anglo-American Empiricism and Continental Social Theory

6. Assimilation and Acceptance: Studies in Prejudice

Part IV. Message in a Bottle
7. Specters of Marx: The Frankfurt School in the Era of the New Left

8. Marcuse’s Mentors: The American Counterculture and the Guru of the New Left

Conclusion: The Frankfurt School’s American Legacy

Notes
Index

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The Frankfurt School in Exile Thomas Wheatland Table of Contents PRESS: New Books in History interview PopMatters review OTHER: Thomas Wheatland on Flaschenpost; Max Horkheimer; the Frankfurt School and his experience publishing this book. Posted on the University of Minnesota Press blog.		$39.95 cloth/jacket ISBN: 978-0-8166-5367-6
Persuasive and pioneering research on the influence of German intellectuals on postwar American thought Members of the Frankfurt School have had an enormous effect on Western thought, beginning soon after Max Horkheimer became the director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1930. Also known as the Horkheimer Circle, the group included such eminent intellectuals as Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Leo Lowenthal, and Friedrich Pollock. Fleeing Nazi oppression, Horkheimer moved the Institute and many of its affiliated scholars to Columbia University in 1934, where it remained until 1950. Until now, the conventional portrayal of the Institute has held that its members found refuge by relocating to Columbia but that they had little contact with, or impact on, American intellectual life. With insight and clarity, Thomas Wheatland demonstrates that the standard account is wrong. Based on deep archival research in Germany and in the United States, and on interviews conducted with luminaries such as Daniel Bell, Bernadine Dohrn, Peter Gay, Todd Gitlin, Nathan Glazer, Tom Hayden, Robert Merton, and others, Wheatland skillfully traces the profound connections between the Horkheimer Circle’s members and the intellectual life of the era. Reassessing the group’s involvement with the American New Left in the 1960s, he argues that Herbert Marcuse’s role was misunderstood in shaping the radical student movement’s agenda. More broadly, he illustrates how the Circle influenced American social thought and made an even more dramatic impression on German postwar sociology. Although much has been written about the Frankfurt School, this is the first book to closely examine the relationship between its members and their American contemporaries. The Frankfurt School in Exile uncovers an important but neglected dimension of the history of the Frankfurt School and adds immeasurably to our understanding of the contributions made by its émigrés to postwar intellectual life. “More solid, albeit a bit more theoretical intellectual history of the period in which America grew up and joined the rest of the world. Worth the effort.” —Eric Alterman, The Nation “An unusually thorough blend of intellectual and institutional history. [Wheatland’s] book ought to bring new attention to this highly suggestive part of the Frankfurt School’s story.” —Adam Kirsch, Tablet Thomas Wheatland is assistant professor of German history at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. 416 pages \| 6 x 9 \| 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Preface: Critical Theory and the United States Introduction: A Brief History of the Frankfurt School before Its Arrival in the United States Part I. Critical Theory on Morningside Heights 1. New York Transit: An Invitation to Columbia University 2. Failure and the Mythologies of Exile: The Frankfurt School’s Years at Columbia University Part II. The Owl of Minerva Comes to New York 3. John Dewey’s Pit Bull: Sidney Hook and the Confrontation between Pragmatism and Critical Theory 4. Crosstown Traffic: The New York Intellectuals Encounter Critical Theory Part III. Critical Theory and the Rise of Postwar Sociology 5. The Atlantic Divide: Building Bridges between Anglo-American Empiricism and Continental Social Theory 6. Assimilation and Acceptance: Studies in Prejudice Part IV. Message in a Bottle 7. Specters of Marx: The Frankfurt School in the Era of the New Left 8. Marcuse’s Mentors: The American Counterculture and the Guru of the New Left Conclusion: The Frankfurt School’s American Legacy Notes Index