Remade in America: The Transformation of Critical Theory in the United States—Reflections on the Frankfurt School in Exile

The recent interest of literary critics and philosophers in the “Frankfurt School” has often obscured the fact that the Institut für Sozialforschung was devoted first and foremost to social science. When its members arrived in the United States, they almost exclusively worked within the discipline of sociology. The Horkheimer Circle’s experiences highlight the sharp divide that separated U.S. social science from Continental social science. While Americans were intrigued by the empirical work of the Institut für Sozialforschung, the group’s use of social philosophy was almost entirely misunderstood by its U.S. audience. Although we traditionally tend to view the Frankfurt School as being stranded on an island of self-imposed isolation during its period of American exile, this image conceals the transformations that Critical Theory underwent in the United States. Like the other groups of émigré social scientists, the Frankfurt School underwent a complex process of assimilation that not only helped to establish bridges between empirical research and social theory, but also helped to place American society and culture under Critical Theory’s microscope. This paper will re-investigate the central focus of my 2009 book, The Frankfurt School in Exile – namely, how the research agenda and tools that had been formed in the chaotic atmosphere of the “Old World” were imported across the Atlantic and modified to assess the social and historical developments in the “New World.”