Towards a New Manifesto

Book excerpt: A thrilling example of philosophy in action, Towards a New Manifesto reveals the fathers of critical theory, Adorno and Horkheimer, in a uniquely spirited and free-flowing exchange of ideas. A record of their discussions over three weeks in the spring of 1956, recorded with a view to writing a contemporary version of The Communist Manifesto, this conversation ranges across its central themes—theory and practice, labor and leisure, domination and freedom—in a register found nowhere else in their work. Amid a careening flux of arguments, aphorisms and asides, in which the trenchant alternates with the reckless, positions are swapped and contradictions unheeded resulting in a thrilling example of philosophy in action and a compelling map of a possible passage to a new world.