Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966) was the author of Theory of Film, From Caligari to Hitler, and many other works on historical, sociological, and cultural topics. Thomas Y. Levin is Associate Professor of German at Princeton University.

• Translator's Note Introduction by Thomas Y. Levin Lead-In: Natural Geometry Lad and Bull Two Planes Analysis of a City Map External and Internal Objects Photography Travel and Dance The Mass Ornament On Bestsellers and Their Audience The Biography as an Art Form of the New Bourgeoisie Revolt of the Middle Classes Those Who Wait Constructions The Group as Bearer of Ideas The Hotel Lobby Perspectives The Bible in German Catholicism and Relativism The Crisis of Science Georg Simmel On the Writings of Walter Benjamin Franz Kafka The Movies Calico-World The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies Film 1928 Cult of Distraction Fadeaway: Toward the Vanishing Point Boredom Farewell to the Linden Arcade Notes Bibliographic Information Credits Index

Reading his reviews for the Frankfurter Zeitung of some 70 years ago, one would expect Siegfried Kracauer to seem more of his time than he sometimes does. That’s the first salutary shock in The Mass Ornament… Here’s a German Marxist writing about Franz Kafka and Max Weber and Martin Buber hot off the press; or giving an on-set report to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And yet, when he writes about the fashion for biography, or the crisis of the novel, or of science, he seems to be elaborating arguments that mean more today than ever before.

Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966) was the author of Theory of Film, From Caligari to Hitler, and many other works on historical, sociological, and cultural topics. Thomas Y. Levin is Associate Professor of German at Princeton University.

• Translator's Note Introduction by Thomas Y. Levin Lead-In: Natural Geometry Lad and Bull Two Planes Analysis of a City Map External and Internal Objects Photography Travel and Dance The Mass Ornament On Bestsellers and Their Audience The Biography as an Art Form of the New Bourgeoisie Revolt of the Middle Classes Those Who Wait Constructions The Group as Bearer of Ideas The Hotel Lobby Perspectives The Bible in German Catholicism and Relativism The Crisis of Science Georg Simmel On the Writings of Walter Benjamin Franz Kafka The Movies Calico-World The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies Film 1928 Cult of Distraction Fadeaway: Toward the Vanishing Point Boredom Farewell to the Linden Arcade Notes Bibliographic Information Credits Index

Reading his reviews for the Frankfurter Zeitung of some 70 years ago, one would expect Siegfried Kracauer to seem more of his time than he sometimes does. That’s the first salutary shock in The Mass Ornament… Here’s a German Marxist writing about Franz Kafka and Max Weber and Martin Buber hot off the press; or giving an on-set report to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And yet, when he writes about the fashion for biography, or the crisis of the novel, or of science, he seems to be elaborating arguments that mean more today than ever before.

Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966) was the author of Theory of Film, From Caligari to Hitler, and many other works on historical, sociological, and cultural topics. Thomas Y. Levin is Associate Professor of German at Princeton University.

• Translator's Note Introduction by Thomas Y. Levin Lead-In: Natural Geometry Lad and Bull Two Planes Analysis of a City Map External and Internal Objects Photography Travel and Dance The Mass Ornament On Bestsellers and Their Audience The Biography as an Art Form of the New Bourgeoisie Revolt of the Middle Classes Those Who Wait Constructions The Group as Bearer of Ideas The Hotel Lobby Perspectives The Bible in German Catholicism and Relativism The Crisis of Science Georg Simmel On the Writings of Walter Benjamin Franz Kafka The Movies Calico-World The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies Film 1928 Cult of Distraction Fadeaway: Toward the Vanishing Point Boredom Farewell to the Linden Arcade Notes Bibliographic Information Credits Index

Reading his reviews for the Frankfurter Zeitung of some 70 years ago, one would expect Siegfried Kracauer to seem more of his time than he sometimes does. That’s the first salutary shock in The Mass Ornament… Here’s a German Marxist writing about Franz Kafka and Max Weber and Martin Buber hot off the press; or giving an on-set report to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And yet, when he writes about the fashion for biography, or the crisis of the novel, or of science, he seems to be elaborating arguments that mean more today than ever before.