Deborah Cook's study of Adorno and mass culture critically engages one of the most important thinkers of our century. An excellent job in presenting Adorno's complex thought applied to a wide range of issues in contemporary social theory and media criticism.

Douglas Kellner, UCLA; author of Media Culture and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy

In sum, the book is a refreshing departure from the frequent tendency to bash and dismiss Adorno without further ado, or the tendency of his followers to simply celebrate him as the greatest theorist of the contemporary moment. Cook's book should thus be of significant use to those interested in Adorno and critical theory, cultural studies and mass communication, and contemporary social theory. Adorno's work itself is transdisciplinary and Cook presents him in a fashion in which he could be of use to a broad transdisciplinary audience

Journal of Communication

Adorno's speculative thinking in the service of norms such as freedom, autonomy, and spontaneity serves as a prototype of social and political practice that might overcome the reification and narcissism endemic to contemporary mass culture.

Sociological Abstracts