Adorno and the Antifascist Geographical Imagination - (Geotheory) by Chris Philo (Hardcover)

About the Book

A pioneering excavation of Adorno's geography which engages fascism and antifascism in the terrain of geographical theorising.

Book Synopsis

To think antifascistically is necessarily to think geographically; to think geographically ought to be to think antifascistically. This aphorism sets the compass for this book's ambitious attempt to fold questions of fascism and antifascism into the remit of Geotheory (the focus of the host book series). Alert to fascism's pernicious haunting of our contemporary moment, it reaches for intellectual resources through which to fashion constellations of antifascist thought hinging on attentiveness to space, place, landscape and nature.

Specifically, the book offers the first attempt to systematically explore the 'geographies' integral to the thinking of Theodor W. Adorno, premier exponent of the Frankfurt School of critical theory whose writings - on philosophy and sociology, politics and culture, literature and music - were often framed precisely against the threat of fascistic regression. By disclosing Adorno's geographies, the shape of a geographical antifascism comes into view as a transformational restatement of critical geography's spirit and purpose.

Review Quotes

A staggering work of urgent scholarship. Through rigorous, careful engagement with Adorno's oeuvre, Philo affirms the value of critical thought as he uncovers and crafts a compelling 'antifascist geographical imagination'. One of the most important geographical books of the 21st century, Adorno and the Antifascist Geographical Imagination is essential reading amid today's fascistic tendencies.--Ben Anderson, Durham University