Adorno and Activism

Abstract This chapter revisits Adorno’s ambivalence toward 1960s student activism in the context of his and the Frankfurt School’s extended grappling with the theory–practice dialectic. It locates, in Adorno’s mid-1960s lectures on History and Freedom, a firm reclamation of the enduring historical possibility of political spontaneity and intervention. The chapter offers several suggestions as to why Adorno nonetheless cast doubt on the efficacy of ongoing student activism with the argument that political practice was “blocked,” as well as what can be gained from Adorno’s robust defense of theory within the theory–practice dialectic. Yet it ultimately argues that, against his own skepticism and Cold War blinders, Adorno’s inchoate theory of moral-political action in the lectures obtained its nearest practical expression in the international solidarity that motivated the political movements of the era. To understand Adorno’s continued relevance for activism, this past historical-theoretical conjuncture requires further exploration.