A History of Economic Thought at the Frankfurt Institute: Beyond the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, 1923-1945

The Frankfurt Institute continues to command the interest of a wide range of scholars working in history, philosophy, sociology, and political science. Yet, the prevailing narrative about the Institute overlooks a crucial component of its history: the economic theories developed by its lesser-known members. This book presents the first comprehensive study of these overlooked contributions, providing a transformative account that repositions the Institute as a site of original and influential economic thought. Most research on the Frankfurt Institute remains narrowly focused on a select few members whose work developed methods of critiquing capitalism that were more philosophically oriented than empirically grounded in economic reality.

Drawing on new archival research, this book brings to the forefront the sidelined and long-neglected economic ideas of Franz L. Neumann, Otto Kirchheimer, Friedrich Pollock, Carl Grünberg, Henryk Grossmann, Arkadij Gurland, Gerhard Meyer, Kurt Mandelbaum, and Karl A. Wittfogel. Viewing the work of the Institute through these figures highlights the fact that material, historical, and empirical approaches to economic theory were central to its work. Being primarily a work of intellectual history, the book contextualises the Institute’s economic theories within the historical settings of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

The book emphasises the role of these underappreciated economists in shaping economic discourse around the structural characteristics of capitalist economies during the twentieth century and offers a renewed perspective on the intricate interplay between economics, politics, history, and epistemology, which lay at the heart of the Institute’s endeavours. This book will be of interest to researchers on twentieth-century economic history, intellectual history, political philosophy, history of economic thought, epistemology, and critical theory.

Ali Ahmad holds a PhD in Economic and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge, having worked under the supervision of Martin Ruehl. He has received awards from the Economic History Society, the Cambridge Political Economy Society, and the Ellen MacArthur Fund. He previously earned a dual BA in Business Administration and Economics from the American University of Beirut, where he was on the Dean’s Honour List, and an MA in Politics and International Relations from Durham University with Distinction. His research approaches the study of capitalism from multiple angles including epistemology, ideology, intellectual history, politics, economics, and financial analysis.