Individualism: The Cultural Logic of Modernity is an edited collection of sixteen essays on the idea of the modern sovereign individual in the western cultural tradition. Reconsidering the eighteenth-century realist novel, twentieth-century modernism, and underappreciated topics on individualism and literature, this volume provocatively revises and enriches our understanding of individualism as the generative premise of modernity itself.

These are heady times for Theodor W. Adorno, and perhaps the most exciting recent chance to revisit Adorno's often thorny, always trenchant responses to America has been Surhkamp's publication of Current of Music: Elements of a Radio Theory, the fascinating and sprawling result of Adorno's early years in the United States and his collaboration with Paul Lazarsfeld and the Princeton Radio Research Project. The publication of this mammoth work on radio broadcasting—700 pages, the majority of which were written in English—reveals (...) just how intimately familiar Adorno was with network broadcasting practices, advertising, technology, popular music, and—yes—even jazz and should finally…. (shrink)

The Authoritarian Personality is perhaps the most idiosyncratic of Adorno's major works. An attempt to merge US social science research methods with European theoretical and philosophical analysis, the book attempts to explain the personality traits that might lead individuals to be seduced by authoritarian ideals. Although influential and widely debated at the time of its publication, The Authoritarian Personality 's reputation has since waned. However, with the reemergence of pseudo‐conservative politics and the 2016 election of Donald Trump, scholars, journalists, and (...) writers are beginning to reclaim The Authoritarian Personality as a potent analysis of an ongoing fascination with antidemocratic beliefs. (shrink)