Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius

Central to the success of this book is the fact that its author is not solely a biographer but is also a distinguished sociologist and social theorist, and he is able to identify and respond to each of the difficulties that Adorno poses...In its entirety, this is a brilliant book that movingly disentangles and pieces together highly complex relations of personal, historical, and intellectual life. It is difficult to imagine how biography could be more successful in examining theoretical existence or how it could more accurately elucidate thought in so many of its formative dimensions. -- Chris Thornhill Times Higher Education Supplement 20080410 A former student of Adorno's, Mr. Claussen is on intimate terms with the late master's work, especially his correspondence with compatriots such as Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin. -- Thomas Meaney Wall Street Journal 20080418 [A] magisterial biography...As a student of Adorno's during the '60s, Claussen, who teaches sociology at the University of Hanover, knows his mentor's philosophy, as well as his character, intimately. -- Richard Wolin Bookforum 20080601 Claussen is illuminating on his subject's politics, cultural heritage, historical context, musicology, intellectual liaisons and reflections on the culture industry...Theodor Adorno: One Last Genius is a strenuously intellectual biography, the only sort the master himself might just have approved, in which the bare facts of his life always come to us interwoven with historical currents and philosophical wrangles. -- Terry Eagleton London Review of Books 20080619 Claussen superbly examines every aspect of Adorno's life and career, digging like an investigative reporter into "Teddy's" relations with Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, and other famous contemporaries and friends, clarifying the Frankfurt School's evolving ethos, and zeroing in on Adorno's awkward relation to his Jewishness. -- Carlin Romano Chronicle of Higher Education 20080620 As Detlev Claussen's densely textured biography proves time and again, the conflicts and rapprochements between generations were as essential to Adorno's personal and intellectual development as was his persistent sense of exile. -- Brian Dillon Irish Times 20080726