Review by Choice Review
Max Horkheimer took over as director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt in 1930 and provided guidance for several decades. Known informally as the "Horkheimer Circle," the Institute numbered among its members some of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century. Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, T. W. Adorno, Leo Lowenthal, and Friedrich Pollock, among others, contributed to an impressive outpouring of publications. Nazi political successes caused the Institute to take refuge, first in Switzerland and eventually in the US, where, through the efforts of people like Robert Lynd, it became affiliated with Columbia University in 1934. Although Lynd was not sympathetic to the Institute's Marxist leanings, he and others at Columbia appreciated its interdisciplinary approach to social issues. In an excellent explanation of crosscurrents between the Institute and "New York intellectuals," Wheatland (German history, Assumption College) notes the sometimes sticky relationship between Horkheimer's people and Sidney Hook, Paul Lazarsfeld, and even Lynd over theoretical and empirical issues, pragmatism, and the Hegelian dialectic that characterized Horkheimer's critical theory. Wheatland discusses at length later influences, especially Marcuse's impact on the New Left. Carefully researched and well written, the book will be a difficult undertaking for those not versed in the intellectual issues the author discusses. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. J. P. Rodechko emeritus, Wilkes University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
