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Adorno is often celebrated as among the most important cultural-theorists. This volume argues that his theoretical perspectives were deeply flawed.
List of contents
1. Introduction
Background and Context
The Orientation of the Present Study
Adorno’s Form of Presentation
Theory and Practice
The Management of Politics and Personal Relations
The Socio-Historical Context
2. Hegel, Marx, Dialectics
The Individual
Being and Self-consciousness
Becoming
Contradiction
Hegel’s Positivity, Critical Theory’s Positivism
A Note on Dialectical Logic
Mediation
3. Aspects of Adorno’s Method: Constellations and Images
Adorno’s Bilderverbot and the Negation of Messianism
4. Jazz, Radio and the Masses
The Masses and the Culture Industries
The Jazz Essays
Marx, Music and Relative Autonomy
Black Influence and Historical Materialist Analysis
Radio
5. The masses and pro-fascist propaganda
Irrationalism as the Basis of Analysis
Lowenthal’s Anti-Fascist Writings
Adorno’s Study of Martin Luther Thomas
The Approach of Others to Antifascism
Indeed, Efforts to Eliminate Discrimination are Necessarily Long-Term
6. Mediation
7. Negative Dialectic, Identity and Exchange
Negative Thought
The Positive Moment in Dialectics
Identity and Identity Thinking
Concept and Identity
Exchange
8. Conclusion
References
Index
About the author
Robert Lanning, Ph.D. (1990), Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, is part-time Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Mount Saint Vincent University. He has published many articles and two books, Georg Lukács and Organizing Class Consciousness (Marxist Educational Press, 2009), The National Album: Collective Biography and the Formation of the Canadian Middle Class (Carleton University Press, 1996).
Summary
This volume is a critical analysis of Adorno's work, framed by several essential concerns: his method of analysis; the absences of a theory of social change; his approach to the dialectics of Hegel and Marx; and his use of cultural analysis to disparage the working class.
Where so many others make many of these concerns central to their defense of Adorno’s continued relevance, Lanning instead argues against the significance of important aspects of his theoretical perspective.
Foreword
Features in Critical Sociology
Promotion targeting progressive Sociological Journals
Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking engagements 
