The core of this volume is its presentation of Lowenthal’s sixty-year-long intellectual career as a critical theorist and sociologist. The book includes some of his speeches on Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin and presents excerpts from conversations on his life as a scholar and teacher, as managing editor of the Institute for Social Research’s famous journal, as government servant during and immediately after the war, and as observer and critic of contemporary culture and politics. Together these selections present an intriguing biographical panorama of a major intellectual figure.
Giới thiệu về tác giả
Leo Löwenthal (1900-1993) was a sociologist known for his association with the Frankfurt School. He began his career by joining the then newly-formed Institute for Social Research and becoming managing editor of its journal Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. Soon thereafter he migrated to the United States where he held various positions, including research director for Voice of America, the Stanford Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavior Sciences, and finally settled in the department of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His books (which were published in German and English) include Literature and Mass Culture, Prophets of Deceit, and Literature and the Image of Man.