Abstract

This small but important English translation of Theodor Adorno’s public lectures (Lectures 1949-1968, Volume 2) is essential reading for lay audiences interested in developing a critical understanding of the interconnected issues of urban design and social structures, the liberatory implications of sociological research, political education and schooling, the deep psychology of authoritarianism, research and teaching in the modern university, the role of superstition in seeding fascism, and the persistence of right-wing extremism in western democracies. For readers who are unfamiliar with Adorno, these lectures are a perfect introduction to both his method of critical analysis as well as to the conclusions—often counterintuitive—it reveals about the individual’s unconscious but formative relationship to the socio-political sphere. In the 21st century, the call to unfreedom from the podium of authoritarianism grows more insistent every day. In these lectures, Adorno shows us how our ability to disentangle truth from social structures powerfully articulates with our ability to transform them.