The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism

"The history of the Frankfurt School cannot be fully told without examining the relationships of critical theorists to their Jewish family backgrounds. And yet in all three of these eras, Jewish matters had significant effects on the Frankfurt School's key figures: Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse. At some points, their Jewish family backgrounds clarify their life paths; at others, these backgrounds help explain why the leaders of the School stressed the significance of antisemitism. In the post-Second World War era, the differing relationships of critical theorists to their Jewish origins illuminate their distinctive stances toward Israel. This book investigates how the Jewish backgrounds of major critical theorists, and the differing ways in which they related to their origins, affected their work, the history of the Frankfurt School, and the differences that emerged between them over time"--