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This volume provides a systematic re-examination of the Frankfurt School's theory of antisemitism and, employing this critical theory, investigates the presence of antisemitism in 20th- and 21st-century politics and society. Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism uncovers how critical theory differs from mainstream socialist or liberal critiques of antisemitism, as it frames its rejection of antisemitism in the critique of other aspects of modern capitalist society, which traditional theories leave unchallenged or critique only in passing. Amongst others, these include issues of identity, nation, race, and sexuality. In exploring the Frankfurt School's writings on antisemitism therefore, the chapters in this book reveal connections to other pressing societal issues, such as racism more broadly, patriarchy, statism, and the societal dynamics of the ever-evolving capitalist mode of production. Putting the theory to practice, this volume brings together interdisciplinary scholars and activists who employ critical theory to scrutinise right- and left-wing manifestations of antisemitism. They develop, in their critique of antisemitism, a critique of capitalism, as the authors ask: why does modern capitalist society seem bound to produce antisemitism? And how do we challenge it? At a time when the rise of populism internationally has brought with it new strains of antisemitism, this is an essential resource that demonstrates the continuing relevance of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School for the struggle against antisemitism today

"Modern antisemitism and the modern discipline of sociology not only emerged in the same period, but--antagonism and hostility between the two discourses notwithstanding--also overlapped and complemented each other. Sociology emerged in a society where modernization was often perceived as destroying unity and "social cohesion." Antisemitism was likewise a response to the modern age, offering in its vilifications of "the Jew" an explanation of society's deficiencies and crises. Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology is a collection of twelve essays providing a comparative analysis of modern antisemitism and the rise of sociology. This volume addresses three key areas: the strong influence of writers of Jewish background and the rising tide of antisemitism on the formation of sociology; the role of antisemitism in the historical development of sociology through its treatment by leading figures in the field, such as Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Theodor W. Adorno; and the discipline's development in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. Together the essays provide a fresh perspective on the history of sociology and the role that antisemitism, Jews, fascism, and the Holocaust played in shaping modern social theory."--

The State, the Nation, and the Jews is a study of Germany's late nineteenth-century antisemitism dispute and of the liberal tradition that engendered it. The Berlin Antisemitism Dispute began in 1879 when a leading German liberal, Heinrich von Treitschke, wrote an article supporting anti-Jewish activities that seemed at the time to gel into an antisemitic "movement." Treitschke's comments immediately provoked a debate within the German intellectual community. Responses from supporters and critics alike argued the relevance, meaning, and origins of this "new" antisemitism. Ultimately the Disput

This article proposes a novel reading of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno's emblematic book Dialectic of Enlightenment(1947). Horkheimer and Adorno took as their starting point the observation that modern liberal, human and social progress has tipped over into a new form of barbarism but explicitly refused to develop it into a rejection of the enlightenment and its values as such. Instead, the dialectical view seeks even in the darkest moment of the failure of civilization, which is here epitomized in the Holocaust, reasons to defend a self-reflective, more enlightened form of human civilization. The dialectical theory does not reject but rearticulates the idea of progress that remains central to most forms of liberal and socialist theory. One of the central questions is, under what conditions do the instruments of enlightenment and civilization, including scientific and technological rationality, social organisation and general productivity, serve either emancipation or barbarism. Warding off the positivistic attack on any form of metaphysics and utopian thinking, Horkheimer and Adorno emphasised the need for enlightenment to be based on non-empiricist, reality-transcending, critical thinking in order to be in the service of emancipation rather than domination. The human mind atrophies when deprived of its freedom of movement. The more abstract, philosophical argument of Dialectic of Enlightenment is developed through several more historically specific materials, one of which is the interpretation of modern antisemitism. Horkheimer and Adorno combine in this context a Marxist analysis of aspects of continuity between liberal and fascist governance, based on the concepts of the commodity-form and the wage-form of modern social relations, with an anthropological interpretation of pogroms and genocide as 'rituals of civilization'. Civilization aims at the liberation of human life from labour but does so by way of organizing and intensifying labour, discipline and identity, generating resentment as well as streamlining and destroying thought. Civilization thus produces furious anger both at those deemed to represent more 'primitive' levels of civilization and at those perceived as driving it. Nevertheless, Horkheimer and Adorno argue that enlightenment itself produces the means to overcome its own entrapment. The 'forces and things' it produces serve domination but also encourage humans to overcome domination: the reification of the means of domination – knowledge, in particular – mediates, moderates and potentially democratizes power.

This article examines a fundamental theoretical aspect of the discourse on 'intersectionality' in feminist and anti-racist social theory, namely, the question whether intersecting social divisions including those of sex, gender, race, class and sexuality are interacting but independent entities with autonomous ontological bases or whether they are different dimensions of the same social system that lack separate social ontologies and constitute each other. Based on a historical reconstruction of its genesis, the article frames this as a dispute between system-theoretical and dialectical, 'Critical Theory'-related approaches and argues that the latter better capture the dynamics of contemporary society, including the perspective of its transcendence.

Georg Simmel's "The intersection of social circles," a chapter in his 1908 Sociology, contains discussions of class, religion, ethnic, and gender relations that are highly relevant to contemporary sociological concerns. Simmel's argument is based on a notion of historical dynamic that interprets increasingly complex intersectionality as a sign of progressing civilization. The article establishes how Simmel describes "the intersection of social circles" and then looks at Simmel's account through the concept of "intersectionality" as developed in contemporary feminist theory. The article suggests that although some aspects of Simmel's account of women in modernity are incompatible with contemporary feminism, the shared use of the same image, "intersection," in Simmel and in contemporary feminist theory is the symptom of a shared concern with a particular aspect of the complexity of modern society. In Simmel, the increasing density of the intersections of social circles points to the increasingly complex individuality of modern subjects, whereas the use of the same image in contemporary feminist theory is part of a critique of inequality and oppression in the same modern society whose advent Simmel celebrated. Intersectionality is a characteristic of modern society that first became visible more than a century ago and has meanwhile become ever the more a signature of modernity.