Naples 1925: Adorno, Benjamin and the Summer that Made Critical Theory

The untold story of how the volcanic landscape surrounding Naples influenced a crucial moment in twentieth-century intellectual history

A New Yorker “Best Book of 2024” Selection

“Well-written—and well-translated.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

In the 1920s, the Gulf of Naples was a magnet for European intellectuals in search of places as yet untouched by modernity. Among the revolutionaries, artists, and thinkers drawn to Naples were numerous scholars at a formative stage in their journeys: Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Alfred Sohn‑Rethel, Asja Lacis, Theodor W. Adorno, and many others. While all were indelibly shaped by the volcanic Neapolitan landscape, it was Benjamin who first probed the relationship between the porous landscape and the local culture. But Adorno went further, transforming his surroundings into a radical new philosophy—one that became a turning point in the modern history of the discipline. - Yale University Press