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Friedrich Pollock. The Éminence Grise of the Frankfurt School

Buy hardcover (Brill)
Published Jul 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-70479-4

Philipp Lenhard

Author: Philipp Lenhard
Translator: Lars Fischer
The son of an industrialist who wanted to abolish private property. A Jew who didn’t want anything to do with Judaism. A professor who published little. An economist who squandered his wealth on the stock market. A communist who thought Marxism was anachronistic. And finally: a critical intellectual. When dealing with the political culture of the Weimar Republic, the development of Critical Theory and German-Jewish emigration to the USA, there is no way around Friedrich Pollock. Max Horkheimer’s companion and the founder of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt plays an important part in German-Jewish intellectual history as one of the most prominent representatives of Critical Theory. The present volume presents the first biography of a major but overlooked figure.

Biographical Note

Philipp Lenhard, Dr. phil. (2014) and Habilitation (2022), Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, is DAAD Associate Professor of History and German at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published four monographs, including Café Marx: The Institute of Social Research from its Beginnings to the Frankfurt School (C.H. Beck, 2024; in German).

Readership

Anyone who is interested in Critical Theory, the History of Marxism and (neo-)Marxist theory, German-Jewish history, German and American Intellectual History.

Table of Contents

Preface to the English Edition vii
Acknowledgements viii
Prelude ix
List of Figures xi
Introduction 1
1 Origins 5
2 A Friend for Life 14
3 Failed Revolution 26
4 ‘Scientific’ Marxism 41
5 The Quest 69
6 Dusk 82
7 Practical Relief Work 97
8 Émigré 117
9 A New Order? 133
10 Dinner at the White House 161
11 Return? 178
12 New Old Germany 198
13 Automation 210
14 On Old Age 222
Epilogue 236