The Truth of Modern Society? Critical Theory and Fascism

Abstract

The article discusses the contributions of the Frankfurt School (Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and Erich Fromm) to a theory of fascism in the 1930s and 1940s, after the Institute for Social Research had moved to the United States. The discussion concentrates on the economic and psychoanalytic aspects and concludes that Critical Theory remained too close to traditional Marxism to generate more profound insights into the nature of fascism, especially with regard to its political features.