An introduction to the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, providing an assessment of thinkers such as Pollock, Marcuse, Horkheimer, Adorno, Neumann, Lowenthal, Fromm, Kirchheimer and Habermas, and the political and intellectual context in which they worked. The account considers the political context of the formative work of the School against the background of the Weimar Republic and of Nazi Germany. It contrasts this with the very different background of 1950s Germany in which Habermas embarked on his academic career, and goes on to discuss the enduring relevance of critical theory to the contemporary political agenda. In particular, Stirk illustrates the continuing validity of the Frankfurt School's criticism of positivist, metaphysical, and, more recently, postmodernist views, and its members' attempts to incorporate psychological perspectives into broader theories of social dynamics. He assesses the School's contribution to key areas of contemporary debate including morality, interest, individual and collective identity and the analysis of authoritarian and democratic states.

This book examines the question of European unity, from 1918 to 1939. It focuses on the diversity of the various ideas and images of unity, illustrating how seriously they were taken by political actors at the time, and on the complex interplay of ideology and interest which shaped the idea and reality of Europe in this turbulent period. European Unity in Context takes an interdisciplinary approach to the question of Europe, incorporating the perspectives of historians, social scientists and literary specialists and thus offers valuable insights for students and scholars in history, politics, and literature alike.

An understanding of military occupation as a distinct phenomenon first emerged in the 18th century. This book shows how this understanding developed and the problems that the occupiers, the occupied, commentators and the courts encountered. It covers all major occupations including: France, Sicily, Greece, Belgium, Syria, Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Egypt, Korea, Peking, the Boer Republics; Latin America; and those related to the Napoleonic Wars, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War, and the Spanish-American War

The concept of the state plays a central role in international relations, particularly in realist and neo-realist approaches. Yet, the meaning of the state is persistently taken to be self-evident by both advocates of the sovereign state and its critics. This volume counters this trend. It systematically considers the nature of the state, the concept of sovereignty and the challenges globalisation and cosmopolitanism. Featuring contributions from some of the most reputed theorists of the state, the essays in this collection give you a coherent and, at the same time, distinctively pluralist set of original reflections on the role and nature of the state.

Carl Schmitt is one of the most contentious political theorists of the twentieth century. His complicity in Nazi Germany left him discredited yet he has continued to attract widespread attention as an insightful, if flawed, critic of the modern democratic order and its global ambitions. His assertion that 'whoever invokes humanity is trying to cheat' has been revived as a indictment of western especially American, intervention in the affairs of other countries. As a German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has noted Schmitt's arguments potentially have a fatal appeal in the contemporary world. The essays in this volume explore related aspects of Schmitt's arguments against intervention, about the concept of the enemy, political myth, occupation and the global order. In the light of the so-called war on terrorism, the occupation of Iraq and widespread hostility to American foreign policy, these arguments have gained new vitality, yet they are ultimately deceptive. This book examines both the reasons for the appeal of Schmitt's arguments and the reasons why we should reject them.

What gives the mass media, particularly advertising and television, their extraordinary power over our lives, so that even the most jaded and sophisticated among us are troubled and fascinated by their allure? The secret, according to Richard Stivers, in this brilliant new book, lies in the curious relationship between technology and magic. Stivers argues the two are now related to one another in such a way that each has taken on important characteristics of the other. His contention is that our expectations for technology have become magical to the point that they have generated a multitude of imitation technologies that function as magical practices. These imitation technologies flourish in the fields of psychology, management administration, and the mass media, and their paramount purpose in human adjustment and control. Advertising and television programs, in particular, contain the key magical rituals of our civilization.In a fascinating analysis of television programming, Stivers shows how various genres--news, sports, game shows, soap operas, sitcoms, etc.--have their distinct mythological symbols. Through dramatized information, they symbolically connect consumer goods and services to desired outcomes--the utopian goals of success, happiness, and health--thus enveloping technology, both real and imitation, in a magical cocoon.

An understanding of military occupation as a distinct phenomenon first emerged in the 18th century. This book shows how this understanding developed and the problems that the occupiers, the occupied, commentators and the courts encountered. It covers all major occupations including: France, Sicily, Greece, Belgium, Syria, Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Egypt, Korea, Peking, the Boer Republics; Latin America; and those related to the Napoleonic Wars, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War, and the Spanish-American War

This volume evaluates the notion of European Unity in a period when European identity was subjected to the destructive consequences of Nazi and Fascist domination of much of the Continent. By presenting the competing visions of transformation and reconstruction played out during the war years the book aims to provide broader-based and more complex insights into forces that shaped the post-war period than those in conventional accounts that locate the thinking about European unity only in the years after 1945.

From the launch of the Journal of Social Research in 1932 to the recent work of Jurgen Habermas on law and democracy, the Frankfurt School has produced some of the most ambitious and influential theories of the past century. This new introduction to the critical theory of the School provides a thorough, concise and up-to-date assessment of thinkers including Pollock, Marcuse, Horkheimer, Adorno, Neumann, Lowenthal, Fromm, Kirchheimer and Habermas. Peter Stirk's lively account places the formative work of the School within the context of the Weimar Republic and of Nazi Germany. He contrasts this environment with the very different background of 1950s Germany in which Habermas embarked on his academic career. Stirk goes on to discuss the enduring relevance of political theory to the contemporary political agenda. In particular, he illustrates the continuing validity of the Frankfurt School's criticism of positivist, metaphysical and more recently postmodernist views, and its members' attempts to incorporate psychological perspectives into broader theories of social dynamics. He assesses their contribution to key areas of contemporary debate, including morality, interest, individual and collective identity and the analysis of authoritarian and democratic states. Specifically focused on the interests and needs of social scientists, philosophers and historians of ideas, Critical Theory, Politics and Society is an essential book both for students and for all those who wish to grasp the contours of critical theory and to understand its enduring relevance.