The Century of the Self

Theodor Adorno: German philosopher who also wrote on sociology, psychology, and musicology. 

After teaching two years at the University of Frankfurt, Adorno fled to England in 1934 to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews. He taught at Oxford for three years and then went to the United States (1938), where he worked at Princeton (1938-41) and then was co-director of the Research Project on Social Discrimination at the University of California, Berkeley (1941-48). Adorno and his colleague Max Horkheimer returned to the University of Frankfurt in 1949. There they rebuilt the Institute for Social Research and revived the Frankfurt school of critical theory, which contributed to the German intellectual revival after World War II.  Max Horkheimer later became the Director of the institute and guided it into its exploration of the cultural aspects of capitalism.

 

For a more comprehensive idea of the type of thing Adorno and Horkheimer were trying to highlight in their work on the Culture industry this award winning BBC 4 documentary from 2002 explains everything.