This very short introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency alienation and reification the culture industry and repressive tolerance non identity and utopia he argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hidden transformative . Critical theory a very short introduction explores the concepts and themes that distinguished critical theory from its more traditional philosophical competitors critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the frankfurt school the circle of german jewish academics who sought to diagnose and cure the ills of society sketches of leading representatives of this critical tradition such as george lukacs and ernst bloch theodor adorno and walter benjamin herbert . Introduction what is critical theory p1 critical theory was generated between world war i and world war ii and its most important representatives would wage an unrelenting assault on the exploitation repression and alienation embedded within western civilization p2 both kant and hegel incarnated the cosmopolitan and universal assumption deriving from the european enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the frankfurt school the circle of german jewish academics who sought to diagnose and if at all possible cure the ills of society particularly fascism and capitalism in this book stephen eric bronner provides sketches of famous and less famous representatives of the critical tradition such as george lukacs and ernst bloch theodor adorno and walter benjamin herbert marcuse and jurgen habermas as well as many of its seminal texts . Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the frankfurt school the circle of german jewish academics who sought to diagnose and if at all possible cure the ills of society particularly fascism and capitalism