What makes individuals what they are? How should they judge their social and political interaction with the world? What makes them authentic or inauthentic? This original and provocative study explores the concept of "authenticity" and its relevance for radical politics. Weaving together close readings of three 20th century thinkers: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Jean-Paul Sartre with the concept of authenticity, Stephen Eric Bronner illuminates the phenomenological foundations for self-awareness that underpin our sense of identity and solidarity. He claims that different expressions of the existential tradition compete with one another in determining how authenticity might be experienced, but all of them ultimately rest on self-referential judgments. The author's own new framework for a political ethic at once serves as a corrective and an alternative. Wonderfully rich, insightful, and nuanced, Stephen Eric Bronner has produced another bookshelf staple that speaks to crucial issues in politics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Existentialism, Authenticity, Solidarity will appeal to scholars, students and readers from the general public alike.

What makes individuals what they are? How should they judge their social and political interaction with the world? What makes them authentic or inauthentic? This original and provocative study explores the concept of "authenticity" and its relevance for radical politics. Weaving together close readings of three 20th century thinkers: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Jean-Paul Sartre with the concept of authenticity, Stephen Eric Bronner illuminates the phenomenological foundations for self-awareness that underpin our sense of identity and solidarity. He claims that different expressions of the existential tradition compete with one another in determining how authenticity might be experienced, but all of them ultimately rest on self-referential judgments. The author's own new framework for a political ethic at once serves as a corrective and an alternative. Wonderfully rich, insightful, and nuanced, Stephen Eric Bronner has produced another bookshelf staple that speaks to crucial issues in politics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Existentialism, Authenticity, Solidarity will appeal to scholars, students and readers from the general public alike.

Sovereignty is among the most important phenomena for making sense of political life. But there are many mistaken assumptions associated with the concept. This book provides a new and somewhat unorthodox interpretation of it from the standpoint of a theory of practice. The Sovereign responds to pressing political issues of our time, like immigration and refugees, transnationalism and populism, the prospects for democracy, and the relationship between civil society and the state. The chapters trace the concept of sovereignty from its origins in political theory, providing perspective and insights that leave the reader with a phenomenological sketch of the sovereign. Bronner transforms our ideas about political power, what it is, how it has been used, and how it can be used. His new theory of sovereignty concludes with twenty-five provocative theses on the sovereign's role in modern capitalist society. The Sovereign is a novel and unparalleled overview of a crucial concept by an influential thinker. It is especially and particularly recommended to scholars and student of comparative politics, international relations, contemporary political theory, and the wider general public.

Sovereignty is among the most important phenomena for making sense of political life. But there are many mistaken assumptions associated with the concept. This book provides a new and somewhat unorthodox interpretation of it from the standpoint of a theory of practice. The Sovereign responds to pressing political issues of our time, like immigration and refugees, transnationalism and populism, the prospects for democracy, and the relationship between civil society and the state. The chapters trace the concept of sovereignty from its origins in political theory, providing perspective and insights that leave the reader with a phenomenological sketch of the sovereign. Bronner transforms our ideas about political power, what it is, how it has been used, and how it can be used. His new theory of sovereignty concludes with twenty-five provocative theses on the sovereign's role in modern capitalist society. The Sovereign is a novel and unparalleled overview of a crucial concept by an influential thinker. It is especially and particularly recommended to scholars and student of comparative politics, international relations, contemporary political theory, and the wider general public.

This book includes a collection of 190 letters that show the personality of Rosa Luxemburg in its political as well as in its personal dimensions. It presents the spirit of her time as it is reflected in her political thinking, activism, and personal concerns.

This book includes a collection of 190 letters that show the personality of Rosa Luxemburg in its political as well as in its personal dimensions. It presents the spirit of her time as it is reflected in her political thinking, activism, and personal concerns.

A collaboration of more than 45 thinkers who form the "canon" of contemporary political thought--from John Dewey and Walter Benjamin to Malcolm X and Judith Butler.
Twentieth Century Political Theory fuses the needs of the more traditional course with the rapidly changing and extremely influential new approaches to the field. Designed for undergraduate and graduate students, this volume includes essays by major figures like Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Sir Isaiah Berlin, John Dewey, W.E.B. Dubois, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Antonio Gramsci, V.I. Lenin, Jurgen Habermas, Adolph Hitler and others. Its range and innovative character will assuredly make this anthology the major primary work in political theory for many years to come.

Of Critical Theory and its Theorists is an intelligent, accessible overview of the entire Critical Theory Tradition, written by one of the leading experts on the subject. Filled with original insights and valuable historical narratives, Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists covers the work of major philosphical thinkers such as Benjamin, Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and Habermas and revisits the contributions of lesser known figures such as Karl Korsch and Ernst Bloch. Bronner measures the writing of these theorists against each other, postmodernist philosophers and the critical tradition reaching back to Hegel. Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists presents new insights useful to experienced scholars and offers clear summaries for students making this book an ideal introduction to the debates surrounding one of the most important intellectual traditions of the 20th Century.

Contents:
1. Introduction: From the First Edition to the Second 2. Sketching the Lineage: The Critical Method and the Idealist Tradition 3. Karl Korsch: Western Marxism and the Origins of Critical Theory 4. Philosophical Anticipations: A Commentary on the "Reification" Essay of Georg Lukacs 5. Utopian Projections: In Honor of Ernst Bloch 6. Horkheimer's Road 7. Reclaiming the Fragments: On the Messianic Materialism of Walter Benjamin 8. Political Aesthetics: Reflections on the Expressionism Debate 9. Dialectics at a Standstill: A Methodological Inquiry into the Philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno 10. Fromm in America 11. The Anthropological Break: Aesthetics and Politics in the Work of Herbert Marcuse 12. Jurgen Habermas and the Language of Politics 13. Critical Theory and Civil Society 14. Points of Departure: Sketches for a Critical Theory with Public Aims

Jean-Paul Sartre originally made the term 'engagement' part of the existentialist vocabulary following WWII. It implies the responsibility of intervening in social or political conflicts in the hope of fostering freedom. Imagining the Possible opens different windows upon this particular engagement.

Contents:
Editors Introduction
Part I: The Institute for Social Research and Its Original Programme
1. The State of Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute of Social Research, Max Horkheimer 2. Psychoanalysis and Sociology, Erich Fromm 3. On the Sociology of Literature, Leo Lowenthal 4. Notes on Science and the Crisis, Max Horkheimer 5. Philosophy and Critical Theory, Hebert Marcuse
Part II: Fragments of a Theory of Society
6. The Jews and Europe, Max Horkheimer 7. State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations, Frederick Pollock 8. From Ontology to Technology: Fundamental Tendencies of Industrial Society, Herbert Marcuse 9. The Culture Industry Reconsidered, T.W. Adorno 10. The Public Sphere, Jurgen Habermas
Part III: Cultural Criticism and the Critique of Mass Culture
11. The Mass Ornament, Siegfried Kracauer 12. Lyric Poetry and Society, T.W. Adorno 13. Surrealism: "The Last Snapshot of European Intelligentsia", Walter Benjamin 14. Historical Perspectives on Popular Culture, Leo Lowenthal 15. Perennial Fashion, T.W. Adorno
Part IV: Critical Theory and Psychology^HN
16. Politics and Psychoanalysis, Erich Fromm 17. Introduction to The Authoritarian Personality, T.W. Adorno 18. The Obsolescence of the Freudian Concept of Man, Herbert Marcuse 19. The Crisis of Psychoanalysis, Erich Fromm
Part V: Critical Visions
20. Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin 21. Notes on the Institute Activities, Max Horkheimer 22. Society, T.W. Adorno 23. Liberation from the Affluent Society, Herbert Marcuse 24. The Reification of the Proletariat, Herbert Marcuse 25. The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society, Jurgen Habermas

Stephen Eric Bronner revisits the modernist project's groundbreaking innovations, itsexperimental imagination, and its utopian politics. Reading the artistic and intellectual achievements of the movement's leading figures against larger social, political, and cultural trends, he follows the rise of a flawed yet salient effort at liberation and its confrontation with modernity. Modernism at the Barricades features chapters on expressionism, futurism, surrealism, and revolutionary art and includes fresh perspectives on the work of Arnold Schoenberg, Wassily Kandinsky, and Emil Nolde, among others. The volume illuminates an international avant garde intent on resisting bureaucracy, standardization, scientific rationality, and the increasing commodification of mass culture. Modernists sought new ways of feeling, new forms of expression, and new possibilities of experience while seeking to refashion society. Liberation was their aim, along with the invigoration of daily life -- yet their process entangled political resistance with the cultural.Exploring both the political responsibility of the artist and the manipulation of authorial intention, Bronner reconfigures the modernist movement for contemporary progressive purposes and offers insight into the problems still complicating cultural politics. He ultimately reasserts the political dimension of developments often understood in purely aesthetic terms and confronts the self-indulgence and political irresponsibility of certain so-called modernists today. The result is a long overdue reinterpretation and rehabilitation of the modernist legacy for a new age.

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, clouds of ash blackened the skies over New York City, Washington, D.C., and rural Pennsylvania. In the wake of the destruction, the United States seemingly entered a new era marked by radical changes in the nation's discourse and in the policies of the Bush administration. With the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, and saber rattling elsewhere, America's global war on terror began to take shape. Lofty rhetoric about expanding democracy and defending freedom filled the halls of elite power and dominated mainstream media coverage of American politics. Blood in the Sand offers both an incisive analysis and a confrontational critique of America's recent international pursuits and its dominant political culture. Stephen Eric Bronner challenges the notion that everything changed in the aftermath of 9/11. He shows instead how a criminal act served to legitimize political manipulation and invigorate traditional nationalistic enthusiasms for militarism and imperial expansion. Employing his own experiences in the Middle East, Bronner acknowledges -- but refuses to overstate -- recent progressive developments in the region. He criticizes the neo-conservative penchant for unilateral military aggression and debunks the dubious notion of fostering democracy at gunpoint. While Bronner analyzes authoritarian repression, human rights violations, shrinking civil liberties, and severe socioeconomic inequalities, Blood in the Sand is neither a narrow political diatribe nor a futile exercise in anti-American negativism. The author honors America by condemning the betrayal of the nation's finest ideals by so many of those who, hypocritically or naively, invoke those ideals the most. Bronner sheds new light on those who insist on publicly waving the flag while privately subverting that for which it stands. Blood in the Sand sounds a clarion call for revitalizing the American polity and reshaping foreign policy along democratic lines. Committed to a political renewal, Bronner urges the American people to recall what is best about their national heritage and the genuine beacon of hope it might offer other countries and other cultures.

A collaboration of more than 45 thinkers who form the "canon" of contemporary political thought--from John Dewey and Walter Benjamin to Malcolm X and Judith Butler.
Twentieth Century Political Theory fuses the needs of the more traditional course with the rapidly changing and extremely influential new approaches to the field. Designed for undergraduate and graduate students, this volume includes essays by major figures like Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Sir Isaiah Berlin, John Dewey, W.E.B. Dubois, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Antonio Gramsci, V.I. Lenin, Jurgen Habermas, Adolph Hitler and others. Its range and innovative character will assuredly make this anthology the major primary work in political theory for many years to come.

In its portrayal of Judaism as a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to the destruction of Christian civilization, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion remains one of the most infamous documents ever written. Despite being proven a crude forgery, the pamphlet managed to pervade twentieth-century thinking, often being twisted to suit its handlers' purposes, and to justify the most extreme persecution of the Jews. In A Rumor About the Jews, Stephen Eric Bronner provides a history of this notorious fabrication-one which has renewed salience in a "post truth" society dominated by "fake news"-and explores its influence on right-wing movements throughout the twentieth century and the ongoing appeal of bigotry. This new edition of Bronner's 2000 classic (described by Kirkus as "the best short book on anti-Semitism") expands the arguments of the first edition, bringing the work up to date in a new political context.

In its portrayal of Judaism as a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to the destruction of Christian civilization, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion remains one of the most infamous documents ever written. Despite being proven a crude forgery, the pamphlet managed to pervade twentieth-century thinking, often being twisted to suit its handlers' purposes, and to justify the most extreme persecution of the Jews. In A Rumor About the Jews, Stephen Eric Bronner provides a history of this notorious fabrication-one which has renewed salience in a "post truth" society dominated by "fake news"-and explores its influence on right-wing movements throughout the twentieth century and the ongoing appeal of bigotry. This new edition of Bronner's 2000 classic (described by Kirkus as "the best short book on anti-Semitism") expands the arguments of the first edition, bringing the work up to date in a new political context.

Stephen Eric Bronner revisits the modernist project's groundbreaking innovations, itsexperimental imagination, and its utopian politics. Reading the artistic and intellectual achievements of the movement's leading figures against larger social, political, and cultural trends, he follows the rise of a flawed yet salient effort at liberation and its confrontation with modernity.

"Modernism at the Barricades" features chapters on expressionism, futurism, surrealism, and revolutionary art and includes fresh perspectives on the work of Arnold Schoenberg, Wassily Kandinsky, and Emil Nolde, among others. The volume illuminates an international avant garde intent on resisting bureaucracy, standardization, scientific rationality, and the increasing commodification of mass culture. Modernists sought new ways of feeling, new forms of expression, and new possibilities of experience while seeking to refashion society. Liberation was their aim, along with the invigoration of daily life -- yet their process entangled political resistance with the cultural.

Exploring both the political responsibility of the artist and the manipulation of authorial intention, Bronner reconfigures the modernist movement for contemporary progressive purposes and offers insight into the problems still complicating cultural politics. He ultimately reasserts the political dimension of developments often understood in purely aesthetic terms and confronts the self-indulgence and political irresponsibility of certain so-called modernists today. The result is a long overdue reinterpretation and rehabilitation of the modernist legacy for a new age.

The online publication Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture was launched in response to the atmosphere of triumphant conservatism and militarism that pervades American political culture in the aftermath of 9/11. Aiming to revitalize the moribund political left, several world-renowned intellectual figures congregated to form the journal's core group of editors and writers. The mission of Logos is to promote "rational radicalism," grounded in critical social theory and fully engaged with the most vital issues of our time. The Logos Reader: Rational Radicalism and the Future of Politics offers the best political writing published by the journal during its first three years. Compiled by founding editors Stephen Eric Bronner and Michael J. Thompson, these pieces critically examine globalization, the Iraq War, and the plight of the Middle East, while also illuminating the domestic concerns that dominate American discourse. Delivered in a direct, accessible manner, the analyses presented in The Logos Reader reflect the journal's distinctly public purpose. The essays reveal both the practical and theoretical connections between distant military pursuits and domestic struggles for democracy and equality. The left's leading intellectuals shed light on the most recent developments in the global war on terrorism while sharply criticizing right-wing justifications for restricted civil liberties, human rights violations, and rampant expansion of armaments. Similar attention is given to central domestic issues, such as the conservative right's assault on the welfare state and the crusade of religious fundamentalists against civil rights protections for all citizens. Negotiating the vast terrain of current social problems, the contributors are united in their intent to question and ultimately constrain the excessive power wielded by dominant cultural, political, and economic institutions. This collection stakes out firm ideological ground and challenges authoritarian forces, clarifying the notion of rational radicalism as a liberating counterpoint to limiting worldviews and systems of oppression.

German Scholars in Exiledeals with intellectuals who fled Nazi Germany and found refuge in either the United States or in American Services in Great Britain and post-WWII Germany. The volume focuses on scholars who were outside the commonly known Max Horkheimer-Hannah Arendt circles, who are less well-known but not less important. Their experiences ranged from an outstanding career at an Ivy-League university to a return to the German Democratic Republic and a position as an economic advisor to East Berlin's party leadership. None had actual political power, but many asserted some degree of influence. Their intellecutal legacies can still be seen in today's political culture.

This volume is an appraisal of the past ten years of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Particularly following Israeli Operation Cast Lead in 2009, prospects for a viable Palestinian state existing alongside a secure and independent Israel seem increasingly out of reach. Nonetheless, peace initiatives remain largely limited to the prevailing two-state solution, without much serious attention paid to that paradigm's feasibility in the aftermath of: the Israeli separation barrier, rampant settlement of the West Bank, the crippling of Palestinian civil society by Israeli economic sanctions (and military campaigns), or growing loyalties among disillusioned Palestinians to militant groups like Hamas. Rather than attempt to articulate a new or more viable peace paradigm, this volume seeks to encourage more informed discussion of the present peace process by elaborating on its limitations in the aftermath of the past ten years. Featuring chapters from scholars of international law, political science, philosophy, history, and Middle East Studies, this interdisciplinary volume seeks to analyze the vicissitudes of the Israel-Palestine conflict over the past ten years, in a truly holistic manner.

Global society has been analyzed in any number of ways: books dealing with its economic and cultural implications flood the market. But Planetary Politics highlights something unique. It explores globalization with an eye on the transformation of politics into a planetary enterprise. Unifying this collection is a political purpose: the attempt to engage in progressive fashion the dominant trends, the terrible excesses, and the positive prospects in a decidedly new era marked by the transition from a corrosive interplay between nation-states to a burgeoning planetary politics. Bringing together the work of major scholars with national and international reputations, this exciting new work offers perspectives for dealing with the complexity of power in the planetary life of the new millennium.

Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose - and, if at all possible, cure - the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen Eric Bronner provides sketches of leading representatives of the critical tradition (such as George Lukacs and Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas) as well as many of its seminal texts and empirical investigations. This Very Short Introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors. Bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency, alienation and reification, the culture industry and repressive tolerance, non-identity and utopia. He argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hidden transformative possibilities. In this newly updated second edition, Bronner targets new academic interests, broadens his argument, and adapts it to a global society amid the resurgence of right-wing politics and neo-fascist movements. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Published more than twenty years ago, Stephen Eric Bronner's bold defense of socialism remains one of the best texts to reframe the movement for modern audiences. Treating socialism as an ethic and reclaiming its early intellectual foundations, while acknowledging and correcting its inherent flaws, Bronner advances a more robust theory of working-class politics for the twenty-first century.

Unfolding chronologically, Bronner's study revisits the labor movement's pivotal figures--Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Karl Kautsky, Eduard Bernstein, Vladimir Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg--and the major themes governing their work. He identifies the contributions of these individuals but also their missteps, particularly the moments in which critical innovation gave way to dogma, muddying the meaning of core principles and practices. Bronner confronts a host of controversial issues, including the relationship between class and social movements, institutional accountability and participation, and economic justice and market imperatives; the problematic processes of revolution and reform; and the tensions between internationalism and identity. Adding a new introduction examining the revival of socialist theory and the evolution of labor politics over the past three decades, Bronner's classic treatise furthers the intellectual development of a genuinely progressive politics.

In Peace Out of Reach, Stephen Eric Bronner offers an intriguing analysis and eyewitness account of the political and ideological conflicts plaguing the Middle East. Sharply critical of the United States' policies in Afghanistan and Iraq and concerned about our nation's declining credibility throughout the world, Bronner examines the unexplored possibilities and recurrent roadblocks in the struggle for peace. Whether visiting academics in Iran, refugees in Palestine, or the president of Syria, Bronner seeks to listen and learn. These experiences have shaped Bronner's understanding of how the political crises in the Middle East have dramatically influenced Western politics and culture. Peace Out of Reach also investigates the extraordinary controversies generated by the publication of blasphemous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, the religious conservatism of Pope Benedict XVI, the character of contemporary anti-Semitism, and the connection between human rights and personal faith. Peace Out of Reach is both a study in foreign policy and a philosophical inquiry that raises profound ethical questions about the world and the United States' role in it. It links experience with erudition and objective analysis with strategic proposals for change. This book will undoubtedly resonate with all people seeking an alternative to the discredited policies of the past. It contributes mightily to the cultivation of a cosmopolitan and democratic politics.

In this expanded second edition, the radical classic "Moments of Decision" has been updated more than 20 years since it was first published and received the Michael Harrington Book Award. Reexamining observations made after the fall of communism, Stephen Eric Bronner blends political meditation, philosophical critique, and history lessons to illuminate the monumental crises that shaped the 20th and 21st centuries. A cosmopolitan work that touches on the implications of conflicts ranging from World War I to the Arab Spring, "Moments of Decision" explores the assumptions of socialist historiography and the character of modernity. In clear, accessible prose, Bronner has revived and revised a seminal work that is ideal for students, scholars, and anyone interested in political history, theory, and international relations.PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS EDITION: "To guess about the future Bronner has rightly looked into the past, going back to the first world war and the momentous split in the labor movement. His book is a learned, lively and inevitably controversial contribution to the political and historical debates of our age." - Daniel Singer, THE NATION"Stephen Bronner is a distinctive voice on the American left. He combines a deep understanding of working class political history with a passionate interest in devising a democratic strategy for our time, and is willing to take risks in saying just what that strategy should be. Bronner's analysis is both principled and shrewd, unsparing and hopeful. Even where one disagrees with it, one learns." - Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin Law School, Editor, POLITICS AND SOCIETY