Paperback | ISBN:9780262560467| 6 x 9 in| July 1988

From Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought

Fragments of ModernityTheories of Modernity in the Work of Simmel, Kracauer, and BenjaminBy David FrisbyOverviewFragments of Modernity provides a critical introduction to the work of three of themost original German thinkers of the early 20th century. In their different ways, allthree illuminated the experience of the modern in urban life, whether in mid-19th-century Paris or in Berlin at the turn of the century or later as the vanguard city ofthe Weimar Republic. They related the new modes of experiencing the world to thematuration of the money economy (Simmel), the process of rationalization ofcapital (Kracauer), and the fantasy world of commodity fetishism (Benjamin)ineach case focusing on those fragments of social experience that could best capturethe sense of modernity.Fragments of Modernity is included in the series Studies in ContemporaryGerman Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.About the AuthorDavid Frisby is Reader in Sociology at Glasgow University.Endorsements"An essential resource not only for students of 20th-century German thought, butalso for anyone wrestling with the dilemmas of contemporary existence."- Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley