Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer & Theodor W. Adorno - Book Summary

7 Minute Books: Free Book Summaries · Aug 9, 2026 · 6m · transcript

“The Enlightenment's Shadow”

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Title: Dialectic of Enlightenment

Author: Max Horkheimer & Theodor W. Adorno

Category: Culture & Society, Decision-Making & Critical Thinking, Philosophy & Big Ideas

What if the very tools we built to free us end up enslaving us? Sam and Sophie sit with that unsettling question in Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment.

They walk through how the Enlightenment became a new myth, what instrumental reason does…