SOURCE: “The Philosopher in Exile,” in Prismatic Thought: Theodor W. Adorno, University of Nebraska Press, 1995, pp. 21-44.

In the following essay, Hohendahl discusses works from Adorno's period living in the United States as well as Adorno's traumatic experience as an exile from his native Germany.

It would be difficult to describe Theodor W. Adorno's connection to America—which for him meant the United States—as a happy or successful relationship. In fact, most commentators have rightly stressed its highly problematic nature, either by pointing out how unable and unwilling Adorno was to adjust to the American way of life or by emphasizing how the United States failed to receive and integrate the persona and work of the German-Jewish philosopher. Charges of cultural elitism and arrogance, common among American as well as foreign contemporary observers, were later reiterated by critics of Adorno or intellectual historians dealing with the generation...