A collection of seminal essays, many appearing in English for the first time, which provides an excellent overview of the critical theory developed by the Frankfurt School.

Editors Introduction Part I: The Institute for Social Research and Its Original Programme 1. The State of Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute of Social Research, Max Horkheimer 2. Psychoanalysis and Sociology, Erich Fromm 3. On the Sociology of Literature, Leo Lowenthal 4. Notes on Science and the Crisis, Max Horkheimer 5. Philosophy and Critical Theory, Hebert Marcuse Part II: Fragments of a Theory of Society 6. The Jews and Europe, Max Horkheimer 7. State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations, Frederick Pollock 8. From Ontology to Technology: Fundamental Tendencies of Industrial Society, Herbert Marcuse 9. The Culture Industry Reconsidered, T.W. Adorno 10. The Public Sphere, Jurgen Habermas Part III: Cultural Criticism and the Critique of Mass Culture 11. The Mass Ornament, Siegfried Kracauer 12. Lyric Poetry and Society, T.W. Adorno 13. Surrealism: "The Last Snapshot of European Intelligentsia", Walter Benjamin 14. Historical Perspectives on Popular Culture, Leo Lowenthal 15. Perennial Fashion, T.W. Adorno Part IV: Critical Theory and Psychology 16. Politics and Psychoanalysis, Erich Fromm 17. Introduction to The Authoritarian Personality, T.W. Adorno 18. The Obsolescence of the Freudian Concept of Man, Herbert Marcuse 19. The Crisis of Psychoanalysis, Erich Fromm Part V: Critical Visions 20. Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin 21. Notes on the Institute Activities, Max Horkheimer 22. Society, T.W. Adorno 23. Liberation from the Affluent Society, Herbert Marcuse 24. The Reification of the Proletariat, Herbert Marcuse 25. The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society, Jurgen Habermas