# Peter E. Gordon ![Photo PGordon 2024](/sites/g/files/omnuum8071/files/2026-08/Official%20Author%20Photo%20PGordon%202024.jpg) [**Curriculum Vitae**](https://pgordon.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum8071/files/2026-05/PGordon%20CV%20Jan%202026.pdf) **\[photo copyright Juergen Bauer\]** **PETER E. GORDON** is the **Amabel B. James Professor of History**, Faculty Affiliate in the **Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures**, Faculty Affiliate in the **Department of Government**, and Faculty Affiliate in the **Department of Philosophy** at Harvard University. A resident faculty member at Harvard's [**Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies**](https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/people/000058-peter-e-gordon), Gordon is a critical theorist and an historian of modern European philosophy and social thought, specializing in Frankfurt School critical theory, phenomenology, existentialism, and Western Marxism. A frequent contributor of criticism and commentary to periodicals such as [***The New York Times Book Review***](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/books/review/karl-marx-gareth-stedman-jones.html?_r=0)*,* [***The New Republic***](http://www.newrepublic.com/authors/peter-e-gordon), [***The Boston Review of Books***](http://bostonreview.net/politics/peter-e-gordon-mourning-america)***,*** [***The New Statesman***](https://www.newstatesman.com/author/peter-e-gordon)***,*** [***The*** ***Nation***](http://www.thenation.com/authors/peter-e-gordon/)**,** [***The London Review of Books***](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n06/peter-e.-gordon/hair-splitting)***,*** and [***The New York Review of Books***](https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/peter-e-gordon/)***,*** he has published major works on Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno. His book [***Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy***](https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520246362) (2003) received four international awards, including the Salo Baron Prize for the best book in Jewish history, the Goldstein-Goren Prize for the best book in Jewish philosophy, and the Forkosch Prize from the Journal of the History of Ideas. His second book, [***Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos***](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674064171) (2010) received the [**Jacques Barzun Prize**](https://www.amphilsoc.org/2010-jacques-barzun-prize) from the American Philosophical Society, one of the most distinguished awards in the humanities. A comprehensive philosophical reconstruction and analysis of the 1929 encounter between Heidegger and Cassirer and Davos, it contested all allegorical or merely cultural interpretations of the debate to fasten our attention on its intrinsically philosophical content; it has been called a "[magisterial](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/04/08/ernst-cassirer-symbolic-animal/)" study in ***The New York Review of Books**.* His third monograph, [***Adorno and Existence***](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674734784), was published by Harvard University Press in 2016, and was reviewed in periodicals such as [***Critical Inquiry***](https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/robert_pippin_reviews_adorno_and_existence/)***,*** and [***The New York Review of Books***](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/03/23/frankfurt-school-headquarters-neo-marxism/). His next book, [***Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization***](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300250763/migrants-in-the-profane/)*,* based on lectures he gave at Yale University, was recently published by Yale (Fall, 2020); it was reviewed in the [***Times Literary Supplement***](https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/migrants-in-the-profane-peter-e-gordon-review-mark-hannam-frankfurt-school/), and other periodicals. He is also co-author of the book, [***Authoritarianism: Three Inquiries in Critical Theory***](http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo34094320.html)***,*** which also includes chapters by Wendy Brown and Max Pensky (2018). In June, 2019, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Theodor W. Adorno's death in 1969, he delivered the [***Adorno Vorlesungen***](http://www.ifs.uni-frankfurt.de/wp-content/uploads/Plakat_Adorno_Vorlesungen_2019.jpg) at the Institute for Social Research at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, on the theme, [**"Adorno and the Sources of Normativity.**"](http://www.ifs.uni-frankfurt.de/wp-content/uploads/Plakat_Adorno_Vorlesungen_2019.jpg) The lectures, widely reviewed in the German press, including the [***Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung***](https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/frankfurter-adorno-vorlesungen-von-peter-e-gordon-16241430.html), are currently available online from the Institut für Sozialforschung, and has been recently published in German as [***Prekäres Glück: Adorno und die Quellen der Normativität*** ](https://www.suhrkamp.de/buch/peter-e-gordon-prekaeres-glueck-t-9783518588079) (by Suhrkamp Verlag in 2023) and also in English (with the University of Chicago Press) as [***A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity***](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo205548035.html). It was recently reviewed in the [***Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung***](https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/peter-e-gordon-ueber-theodor-w-adorno-19613494.html), the [***Süddeutsche Zeitung***](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/adorno-peter-e-gordon-prekaeres-glueck-1.6330668?reduced=true), among other periodicals in Germany, and in June 2024 Gordon [discussed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzxxZ0UNp3Y) the book in the 'Roter Salon' of the Volksbühne in Berlin with the philosophers Thomas Khurana and Rahel Jaeggi. In the Anglophone sphere, the book has been reviewed in periodicals such as ***The Hedgehog Review**, **Contemporary Political Theory***, ***The Review of Metaphysics,*** ***New Left Review*****,** ***The Tocqueville Review**, **Philosophy in Review***, ***Contemporary Sociology***, and ***The Times Literary Supplement.*** A helpful podcast interview in the series, 'Critical Theory in Context' with Marvin Ester can be found [here](https://criticaltheoryinberlin.de/podcast/podcast-11-adorno-and-the-sources-of-normativity/). Gordon has also edited numerous collections, including [***The Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy***](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-cambridge-companion-to-modern-jewish-philosophy/468C472EC0BE221128B7AF31D769C692) (2007); [***The Modernist Imagination: Essays in Intellectual History and Critical Theory***](http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BreckmanModernist) (2008); [***Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy*** ](https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10007.html)(2013); and [***The Trace of God: Derrida and Religion***](https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823262090/the-trace-of-god/) (2014). He is co-editor with Warren Breckman of [***The Cambridge History of Modern European Thought***](https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/cambridge-history-of-modern-european-thought/56439186CD47C05338BE6EE6BA8C36C5) (2019), and he is co-editor with Espen Hammer and Axel Honneth of [***The Routledge Companion to the Frankfurt School*** ](https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-the-Frankfurt-School/Gordon-Hammer-Honneth/p/book/9781138333246)(2018), and co-editor with Espen Hammer and Max Pensky of [***A Companion to Adorno***](https://www.wiley.com/en-us/A%20Companion%20to%20Adorno-p-9781119146919?fbclid=IwAR1uamgcqKdjxgXHOp6tpgA-bloqoU6m7TIarJ5S5ywnFhhZ5AbAvV3-o48) (Blackwell, 2019). He also helped to edit and wrote the introduction for the new edition of Adorno et al, [***The Authoritarian Personality*** ](https://www.versobooks.com/books/3016-the-authoritarian-personality)(2019). Most recently he published [***Max Weber at 100: Legacies and Prospects***,](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/max-weber-at-100-9780197604922?cc=us&lang=en&) a major collection of critical essays on Weber's work by an international group of scholars, including political theorists, philosophers, sociologists, and historians (co-edited with Joshua Derman, 2024). His most recent book, [***Walter Benjamin: the Pearl Diver***](https://www.jewishlives.org/books/walterbenjamin), was published February 2026 in the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press. You can listen to a podcast interview about the book [here](https://the-jewish-lives-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/walter-benjamin-9QsKj87d), and a written interview, with Lilia Endter, at the JHI blog, [here.](https://www.jhiblog.org/2026/04/13/walter-benjamins-fragments-from-the-deep-an-interview-with-peter-e-gordon/) You can find a long review of it in the [***Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung***](https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/sachbuch/peter-e-gordons-biographie-walter-benjamins-folge-der-spur-des-wassers-200843117.html) (in German) and a long review in [***The New Yorker***](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/03/02/the-pearl-diver-peter-gordon-book-review)***.*** A full listing of his publications can be found by consulting the "publications" link, by consulting his CV, or by following the link above to publications on [amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Eli-Gordon/e/B001IU2MFW) or at[ bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/shop/peteregordon). [**Read more >**](/biocv "A Brief Biography") ## Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History​​​​​ [ The Harvard Colloquium arrow\_circle\_right ](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/harvardcolloquium/home) ### New Book, in German (Suhrkamp Verlag) and in English (University of Chicago Press) ![Prekäres Glück German Edition](/sites/g/files/omnuum8071/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/pgordon/files/cover_of_german_edition.png?itok=6KzGjjAh) ### Adorno Vorlesungen Institut für Sozialforschung June, 2019 ![Book Cover Image UChicagoPress](/sites/g/files/omnuum8071/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/pgordon/files/r1_gordon-9780226828572_copy_2.jpg?itok=7v5XPTOR) ## Recent Publications Download 4 citations download- [BibTeX](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=bibtex) - [EndNote X3 XML](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=endnote8) - [EndNote 7 XML](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=endnote7) - [Endnote tagged](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=tagged) - [Marc](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=marc) - [PubMedId](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=pubmed_id) - [RIS](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=4&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters=&&&format=ris) ### 2026 [Philosophy Podcast: Walter Benjamin: the Pearl Diver](https://philosophypodcasts.org/gordon). Philosophy Podcasts. 2026. [Philosophy Podcast: Walter Benjamin: the Pearl Diver](https://philosophypodcasts.org/gordon). Philosophy Podcasts. 2026. [Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver (Yale University Press, 2026)](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300216868/walter-benjamin/). New Haven: Yale University Press; 2026. [Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver (Yale University Press, 2026)](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300216868/walter-benjamin/). New Haven: Yale University Press; 2026. [Struggles for the Future: How has the idea of revolution changed? A review of Dan Edelstein, The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin.](https://www.thenation.com/article/society/revolution-to-come-thucydides-to-lenin/) The Nation. 2026. [Struggles for the Future: How has the idea of revolution changed? A review of Dan Edelstein, The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin.](https://www.thenation.com/article/society/revolution-to-come-thucydides-to-lenin/) The Nation. 2026. ["Walter Benjamin’s Fragments from the Deep" An Interview with Peter E. Gordon (Brilliantly conducted by Lilia Endter)](https://www.jhiblog.org/2026/04/13/walter-benjamins-fragments-from-the-deep-an-interview-with-peter-e-gordon/). Journal of the History of Ideas Blog. 2026. ["Walter Benjamin’s Fragments from the Deep" An Interview with Peter E. Gordon (Brilliantly conducted by Lilia Endter)](https://www.jhiblog.org/2026/04/13/walter-benjamins-fragments-from-the-deep-an-interview-with-peter-e-gordon/). Journal of the History of Ideas Blog. 2026. [ More Publications arrow\_circle\_right ](/publications)