Adorno and Existence.

With several books on German intellectual history to his name, Gordon (history and philosophy, Harvard) here turns his attention to Theodor Adorno (1903-69), whose complex relations with existentialism and phenomenology he explores. Gordon confesses that his own admiration of Adorno had kept him from writing about the philosopher--until he came across the particular angle of approach he uses in this dense but illuminating study. Though Gordon's purpose remains "largely expository" (as he writes in the introduction), he argues for certain parallels between Adorno and existentialism, namely in their shared wish to free themselves from subjectivism. The argument serves less for Adorno's dealings with Husserl and Heidegger--accused of ending up as crypto-idealists--than it does his dealings with Kierkegaard, whom he engaged throughout his life, beginning with a dissertation under Paul Tillich. Gordon devotes chapters to this early encounter, phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger), the "jargon of authenticity" (Adorno's polemic from the 1950s), "negative dialectics" (renewed criticism of idealist "identity-thinking" from the 1960s), and finally "Kierkegaard's return," in Adorno's late phase. The reader can only marvel at the author's measured lucidity in dealing with the trickiest, most obdurate material. Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Martin Donougho, University of South Carolina--Columbia