Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society. In the Hotel Abyss is a critical analysis of a selection of Adorno's work framed by four essential concerns: Adorno's method of analysis; the absence of a theory of social change; the relationship of his approach to the dialectics of Hegel and Marx; and Adorno's use of his approach with respect to jazz, popular music, radio and pro-fascist propaganda of the 1930s and '40s as an instrument to disparage the working class.
Where so many others make many of these concerns central to their defense of Adorno’s continued relevance, Lanning instead argues against the significance of important aspects of his theoretical perspective.