Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius

by Detlev Claussen, Rodney Livingstone (Translator)

He was famously hostile to biography as a literary form. And yet this life of Adorno by one of his last students is far more than literary in its accomplishments, giving us our first clear look at how the man and his moment met to create “critical theory.” An intimate picture of the quintessential twentieth-century transatlantic intellectual, the book is also a window on the cultural ferment of Adorno’s day—and its ongoing importance in our own. The biography begins at the shining moment of the German bourgeoisie, in a world dominated by liberals willing to extend citizenship to refugees fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe. Detlev Claussen follows Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903–1969) from his privileged life as a beloved prodigy to his intellectual coming of age in Weimar Germany and Vienna; from his exile during the Nazi years, first to England, then to the United States, to his emergence as the Adorno we know now in the perhaps not-so-unlikely setting of Los Angeles. There in 1943 with his collaborator Max Horkheimer, Adorno developed critical theory, whose key insight—that to be entertained is to give one’s consent—helped define the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. In capturing the man in his complex relationships with some of the century’s finest minds—including, among others, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Benjamin, Thomas Mann, Siegfried Kracauer, Georg Lukács, Hannah Arendt, and Bertolt Brecht—Claussen reveals how much we have yet to learn from Theodor Adorno, and how much his life can tell us about ourselves and our time.

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, History, Theory

464 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2003

Reviews

[Michael Paone · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell this was written by one of Adorno’s students, the care put into displaying Adorno as a human being (not as a thinker) is top notch. This can also be reflected in Adorno usually receiving the benefit of the doubt. Indeed, a number of different people are said to be “jealous” of Adorno. That said, if you are looking for an intellectual biography that traces Adorno’s thought, this is not it. Instead, this more details Adorno’s life and relationships in a detailed, loving way. In this sense, this is more like a traditional biography. A basic knowledge of Adorno’s most famous works will help.

[Damian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall it is a little clumsy and repetitive. There are some great parts, and some good information.
I really appreciated to the translated parts from Graeculus as I haven't seen them in English (yet).

[Andrew]

I've had this long-term love/hate relationship with Theodor Adorno that stretches back to when I first read him my sophomore year of college. On the one hand, he seemed like an incredibly wise, decent human with a lot to say about how our consciousness is shaped by culture. On the other hand, he seemed like a snobbish fatalist trapped in a normative perspective shaped by his own early childhood.

My opinion is just as split now as it was when I started the book. Clearly, Adorno was a man of many contradictions and flaws. Claussen, to his credit, explores all of them. But Claussen's own opinions on Adorno are poorly articulated, and his thoughts seem profoundly disorganized. I'm glad I read it-- lord, the Frankfurt School must have been a place to be-- but I'm left wanting something more.

[W.C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little gushy, bio-wise, here and there and reads clumsily. Read it for info only.

[Evan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really terribly organized and translated, which is a shame because there's a lot of interesting material (and even, I think, insight) in here somewhere.