"There is a kind of poetic justice in the fact that Adorno is the great survivor of the Frankfurt School, the only one whose thought retained its full actuality. However, the same thing he said for psychoanalysis – that its truth resides in its very exaggerations – goes for his own thought: he is at his most subversive when he gets involved in a deadlock. For this reason, this critical reader, focused on these deadlocks, is not just a commentary on his thought, but literally part of it. In short, this book is simply a must!" Slavoj Zizek, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institute, Essen "Against all odds, Adorno has emerged at the dawn of the twenty-first century as arguably the leading theoretical inspiration of our time. These stimulating essays, written by fresh as well as familiar commentators on his oeuvre, go a long way towards explaining the power of his ideas and demonstrating their abiding relevance." Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley