Overview
- The book offers a counterargument to the claim that contemporary culture – media, technology, consumerism, “fake news” – has coopted Americans’ critical thinking skills. Drawing on Riesman’s concept of autonomy as presented in The Lonely Crowd, it instead maintains that we can critically evaluate the surrounding culture and so sustain a functional democracy
- This book highlights David Reisman's concept of autonomy as articulated in The Lonely Crowd, arguing that his insights into mid-twentieth century America are still pertinent to our society today
- The book puts David Reisman in conversation with Theodor Adorno, contrasting Riesman’s autonomy with Adorno’s plea for emancipation from the culture industry
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Amirhosein Khandizaji is the author of "The Victory of Instrumental Reason and Farewell to Variety” (Xenomoi Verlag, 2013) and of Baudrillard and the Culture Industry (Springer, 2017). He is the editor of Reading Adorno: the Endless Road (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and the founding editor of Berlin Journal of Critical Theory.
Mary Caputi is Professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach, USA. She is the author of Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory (Lexington, 2013), A Kinder, Gentler America: Melancholia and the Mythical 1950s (Minnesota, 2005), co-editor of Teaching Marx and Critical Theory in the 21st Century, with Bryant Sculos (Brill, 2019), and co-editor of Jacques Derrida and the Future of the Liberal Arts, with Vincent Del Casino (Continuum, 2013). In addition to teaching at California State University,Long Beach, she has taught at the University of Venice, at California State University in Florence, and at John Cabot University, Rome.Bibliographic Information
Book Title: David Riesman and Critical Theory
Book Subtitle: Autonomy Instead of Emancipation
Authors: Amirhosein Khandizaji, Mary Caputi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78869-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-78868-1Published: 18 August 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-78871-1Published: 19 August 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-78869-8Published: 17 August 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 160
Topics: Sociology of Culture, Sociological Theory, Critical Theory, American Culture, US History