David Riesman and Critical Theory

Amirhosein Khandizaji is the author of "The Victory of Instrumental Reason and Farewell to Variety” (Xenomoi Verlag, 2013) and of Baudrillard and the Culture Industry (Springer, 2017). He is the editor of Reading Adorno: the Endless Road (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and the founding editor of Berlin Journal of Critical Theory.   Mary Caputi is Professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach, USA.  She is the author of Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory (Lexington, 2013), A Kinder, Gentler America: Melancholia and the Mythical 1950s (Minnesota, 2005), co-editor of Teaching Marx and Critical Theory in the 21st Century, with Bryant Sculos (Brill, 2019), and co-editor of Jacques Derrida and the Future of the Liberal Arts, with Vincent Del Casino (Continuum, 2013). In addition to teaching at California State University,Long Beach, she has taught at the University of Venice, at California State University in Florence, and at John Cabot University, Rome.

• Introduction1. David Riesman: Life and Social Context.- 2. Erich Fromm: The Mentor.- 3. Theories of David Riesman.- 4. The Culture Industry: Adorno and the Frankfurt School.- 5. Autonomy versus ‘Arrogant Esoterica.- Coda: Reading Reisman Today.