The Routledge Guidebook to Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment

Composed whilst in exile in North America during the Second World War, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment is one of the most famous and philosophically influential texts of the Frankfurt School. A theoretical exploration of developed capitalism and the rise of authoritarianism in both fascism and communism, its core message remains highly relevant today. However, it is also a notoriously complex work and until now no clear introduction to this classic work has been written.

The Routledge Guidebook to Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment is the first fully contextualized introduction to this foundational text in philosophy and social and political theory, addressing its central themes, reception, and influence. The Guidebook examines:

The conceptual and intellectual background to Dialectic of Enlightenment The ideas, themes and arguments of the text The reception and legacy of Dialectic of Enlightenment.

A comprehensive and clearly written guide to this famous text, The Routledge Guidebook to Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment will be invaluable to students coming to the work for the first time, as well as more advanced students and researchers, in philosophy, politics, sociology and the history of ideas.