
“Café Marx: An Institutional and Intellectual History of the Institute of Social Research” by Philipp Lenhard (LMU)
February 25 @ 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Café Marx: this was the flippant name given to the Institute for Social Research by friends and foes alike. And indeed, the beginnings of critical theory and the Frankfurt School lie in an engagement with Marxism. Philipp Lenhard uses a broad range of sources to tell the story of the people, networks, ideas, and places that shaped the Institute and were in turn shaped by it. The book demonstrates why and how the Frankfurt School fashioned the great intellectual debates of the 20th century like no other. The book describes concisely, vividly, and full of surprising insights into the historical context in which Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Benjamin and many others became key thinkers of the 20th century.
Philipp Lenhard is a scholar of modern Jewish history, with a focus on transnational and intellectual history. He is a professor of Jewish History and Culture at LMU Munich and has previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Lenhard has published four monographs. His PhD thesis and first book Nation or Religion? The Emergence of Modern Jewish Ethnicity in France and Germany, 1782-1848 was awarded the Max Weber Prize of the Bavarian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities. His most recent publication, Café Marx: The Institute for Social Research from its Inception to the Frankfurt School, came out this year with C.H. Beck and will be translated into English, Italian, Chinese and Korean.
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