Martin Evan Jay (born May 4, 1944) is an American

intellectual historian Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...

whose research interests connected history with

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

social theory Social theories are analytical frameworks, or paradigms, that are used to study and interpret social phenomena.Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons. A tool used by social scientists, social theories re ...

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

ism, and

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

. He is currently the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History Emeritus at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2019.

Career

Jay received his

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

in 1965. In 1971, he completed his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree in history at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

under the tutelage of H. Stuart Hughes. His dissertation was later revised into the book ''The Dialectical Imagination,'' which covers the history of the

from 1923 to 1950. While he was conducting research for his dissertation, he established a correspondence and friendship with many Frankfurt School members. Leo Löwenthal provided him access to personal letters and documents for his research. Jay's work since then has explored

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

cultural criticism Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these gro ...

visual culture Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images. Many academic fields study this subject, including cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, media studies, Deaf Studies, and anthropology. The field of vi ...

, and the place of

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

and

post-modernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wor ...

in European intellectual history. His current research is focused on nominalism and photography. He is a recipient of the 2010/2011 Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin. In 2023, he published a sequel to ''The Dialectical Imagination'' on the contemporary turns in

Critical Theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

, entitled ''Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School Under Pressure''.Martin Jay, ''Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School Under Pressure'' (London: Verso, 2023). He also has a regular column in the quarterly journal ''

Salmagundi Salmagundi (alternatively salmagundy or sallid magundi) is a cold dish or salad made from different ingredients which may include meat, seafood, Egg as food, eggs, cooked and raw vegetables, fruits, or Pickling, pickles. In English culture, the ...

''.

Personal life

Jay was born on May 4, 1944, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. He married English professor and literary critic Catherine Gallagher circa 1973; they met in 1970 at Berkeley when she was an English graduate student and he was an assistant professor of history.

Published works

*1973
The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-50
' *1984 ''Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas'' *1984 ''Adorno''. Fontana Modern Masters. *1985 ''Permanent Exiles: Essays on the Intellectual Migration from Germany to America'' *1988 ''Fin-de-Siècle Socialism and Other Essays'' *1993 ''Force Fields: Between Intellectual History and Cultural Criticism'' *1993 ''Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought'' *1998 ''Cultural Semantics: Keywords of the Age'' *2003 ''Refractions of Violence'' *2004 ''Songs of Experience: Modern American and European Variations on a Universal Theme'' *2010 ''The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics'' *2011 ''Essays from the Edge: Parerga and Paralipomena'' *2016 ''Reason after Its Eclipse: On Late Critical Theory'' *2020 ''Splinters in Your Eye: Frankfurt School Provocations'' *2021 ''Genesis and Validity: The Theory and Practice of Intellectual History'' *2023 ''Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School under Pressure'' *2025 ''Magical Nominalism: The Historical Event, Aesthetic Reenchantment, and the Photograph''

References

External links

Martin Jay's Faculty PageAn Interview with Martin Jay on the topic of ConsumptionHistory, Experience, and Politics: An Interview with Martin Jay
*The Modernist Imagination:Intellectual History and Critical Theory: Essays in Honor of Martin Jay, eds. Warren Breckman, Peter E. Gordon, A. Dirk Moses, Samuel Moyn and Elliot Neaman (New York, Berghahn Books, 2009).
"Pants on Fire: The Straight Goods on Lying - A Conversation with Martin Jay"
''Ideas Roadshow'', 2015
An Interview with Martin Jay about his 2020 work ''Splinters in Your Eye'' with the New Books Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jay, Martin 1944 births 21st-century American philosophers Jewish American historians American male non-fiction writers Harvard University alumni Intellectual historians Living people Scholars of Marxism Union College (New York) alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society The Bronx High School of Science alumni Historians from New York (state) Historians from California

Career

Personal life

Published works

See also

References

External links