Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort

Description

During the Second World War, three prominent members of the Frankfurt School--Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer--worked as intelligence analysts for the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime forerunner of the CIA. This book brings together their most important intelligence reports on Nazi Germany, most of them published here

Franz Neumann (1900-1954) was a labor lawyer and political activist in Germany before the Nazi period, and was a professor of political science at Columbia University after his work in the OSS and at the Nuremberg Trials. Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was a philosopher who made important contributions to the Frankfurt School critical theory of society. He taught at Brandeis and San Diego universities after his work in the OSS. Otto Kirchheimer (1905-1965) worked for the OSS until 1952. Later he was professor of political science at the New School for Social Research and Columbia. Raffaele Laudani is assistant professor of the history of political thought at the University of Bologna.

"[F]ascinating... [T]his new volume ... conveniently collects a substantial chunk of the original documents penned by Neumann and his research team."--William E. Scheuerman, Foreign Affairs "[A] fascinating collection... The history of wartime intelligence is a developing field, and this material is a welcome addition."--Library Journal "[S]ome of the most brilliant analysis of Nazi Germany ever written and a valuable lesson in postwar planning... [A] rich and multi-layered collection of political essays that will be of enduring interest to students of military intelligence, Marxism, Nazi Germany and the Allied effort in the Second World War."--John Bew, New Statesman