A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity

A strikingly original account of Theodor Adorno’s work as a critique animated by happiness—now in paperback.

"Gordon’s confidently gripping and persistently subtle interpretation brings a new tone to the debate about Adorno’s negativism."—Jürgen Habermas

Theodor Adorno is often portrayed as a totalizing negativist, a scowling contrarian who looked upon modern society with despair. Peter E. Gordon thinks we have this wrong: if Adorno is uncompromising in his critique, it is because he sees in...