Critical Theory (Second Edition)

A Very Short Introduction

By: Stephen Eric Bronner

Narrated by: Justin Price

Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose—and, if at all possible, cure—the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen Eric Bronner provides sketches of leading representatives of the critical tradition (such as George Lukács and Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas) as well as many of its seminal texts and empirical investigations.

This Very Short Introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors. Bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency, alienation and reification, the culture industry and repressive tolerance, non-identity and utopia. He argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hidden transformative possibilities. In this newly updated second edition, Bronner targets new academic interests, broadens his argument, and adapts it to a global society amid the resurgence of right-wing politics and neo-fascist movements.

©2011, 2017 Oxford University Press (P)2023 Tantor

Too short for what it wants to cover

The author had a difficult choice to make as to cover the whole of Frankfurt School in 4 hours. He could either concentrate on few key works that could give the general flavor of the movement or gloss over most of what it ever produced.
I would certainly prefer the first approach, but it seems the author could not decide what to sacrifice, so the book refers to dozens and dozens of different works.
Neither could author betray the philosophy of those dead thinkers by oversimplifying them to the point of banality. The solution he found was to spot an ultra-brief description of the general subjects of each book with remarks that, though very intelligent, make full sense only to those already familiar with their content.
Still, I am glad I got it. My takeaways were a better understanding of times when the movement flourished and of the concerns they wished to address, though very little of the actual solutions they proposed.

Excellent content and narration

Excellent text. Well read with some exceptions. Bertolt Brecht is pronounced in an irritating inaccurate way. Walter Benjamin less irritatingly accurate. Those are minor criticisms though.

Excellent concise introduction to this wide subject

This seemingly obscure subject has jumped into the limelight seemingly out of nowhere. But as an academic discipline, critical theory has been around for almost a century. I use this book as an introduction in my classes, and is very helpful to get a birds eye view of the subject.

A Superfluously Grandiloquent Exegesis of an Ostentatiously Verbose Tome

In the prolix and sesquipedalian morass that constitutes this literary endeavor, one finds oneself ensnared in a labyrinthine concatenation of obfuscatory verbiage so egregiously replete with polysyllabic pretension that the act of mere comprehension becomes an exercise in Herculean perseverance. The author, seemingly under the delusion that lexical complexity is synonymous with intellectual profundity, inundates the reader with an interminable deluge of arcane and esoteric expressions, each more gratuitous than the last.