Essential Frankfurt School Reader

There are, surprisingly, few solid collections of the Frankfurt School out there. This is unfortunate, since often the essays produced by these thinkers are more useful to the general reader--even a general academic reader--than the longer works. And, unfortunately, none of them are very satisfying. All of these collections lack essential essays, and all of them include numerous throw-aways that are unimportant or unuseful. And none of them have particularly helpful introductions for the uninitiated. Nevertheless, this one is probably a better bet than the other two major collections, "Critical Theory: the Essential Readings" and "German 20th Century Philosophy: the Frankfurt School." If only because it includes Adorno's "Fetish Character of Music," which the others don't. Its principal flaw is the same as the others: the mysterious absence of Walter Benjamin's "Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." But overall, its selections are representative and give the reader a good general overview, moreso than the competition at least.

This book was my first exploration into the Frankfurt School; although it immediately struck a chord within me, I was unprepared for the scholarly vocabularly (classic sociology, etc.) expected of the reader. Advice to the bold, impetuous novice: if you read this book, begin with the essays themselves, not the editors' introductions.