260 Part III: Emigration Years
regret, Adorno had to accept the fact that for the time being he had
only the administrative machinery of the institute at his disposal.
Initially, he could only work there directly part-time, to dictate letters
or have memoranda or manuscripts typed up. And even this could only
be done by arrangement with Löwenthal or Marcuse. Alternatively,
he could use the time when Horkheimer was away, something that
happened with growing frequency because he found that the New York
climate exacerbated his serious cardiovascular problems.
Unlike Adorno, Horkheimer had few doubts that, if he was to write
this fundamental book on ‘dialectical logic’ at all, it could only be done
with Adorno’s cooperation. He took the opportunity created by the
latter’s departure from the radio research project to initiate a series of
discussions in spring and autumn 1939, at intervals at first, and then on
a regular basis. These discussions focused on topics such as ‘criticism
in positivism’, ‘the concept of the individual’, ‘the concept of myth’ and
‘knowledge and truth’. These New York discussions, which have been
recorded in part by Gretel Adorno, were intended to provide a first
draft of the book to be produced jointly.^99
Even if Adorno frequently worked at home he was far from allowing
himself to be seduced by the life of an isolated private scholar. He took
an active part in planning and advancing two research projects. His time
with Lazarsfeld had taught him how to formulate sociological problems
so that the institute could use his detailed plan as a basis for grant
applications to the American foundations. One project he had agreed
with Horkheimer and worked out partly with Franz Neumann was to
look into the causes and functions of anti-Semitism. Typically, he began
by establishing a theoretical framework. He also took part in another
project on modern German culture. The aim here was to use a wide
selection of material with which to analyse the economic, political,
social and intellectual development of Germany from 1900 up to the
Nazi seizure of power.
In summer 1940, while Horkheimer was travelling on the West Coast
on a second, extended trip, Adorno, who was acting as deputy in his
absence, took the opportunity to announce ‘the birth of the design for
our new Jewish project’, which had been written at last despite the
unbearable New York heatwave (it was 38° Celsius).^100 A short time
after that, Adorno wrote to Charles Edward Merriam, the dean of the
Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a
member of the advisory committee of the Institute of Social Research,
saying that one aim of this project was ‘to trace the psychology and
typology of present-day anti-Semitism’.^101 In view of the alarming events
that were unfolding, such a topic obviously had urgent significance for
the German émigrés. Since 1938 the Nazis had adopted increasingly
brutal measures to force Jewish citizens into emigration, and they
had also accelerated the process of ‘Aryanizing’ the German economy.
Anti-Jewish repressive measures culminated in the pogroms of 9–10