The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory (New Directions in Critical Theory)

. She is the author of The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity and The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory, and she is the editor of the Columbia University Press series New Directions in Critical Theory. Amy Allen is Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy and head of the Philosophy Depar

Critical theory, according to Allen, is the best resource we have for achieving emancipatory social goals. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future.. While post- and decolonial theorists have thoroughly debunked the idea of historical progress as a Eurocentric, imperialist, and neocolonialist fallacy, many of the most prominent contemporary thinkers associated with the Frankfurt SchoolJürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Rainer Forsthave defended ideas of progress, development, and modernity and have even made such ideas central to their normative claims. Can the Frankfurt School's goal of radical social change survive this critique? And what would a decolonized critical theory look like?Amy Allen fractures critical theory from within by dispensing with its progressive reading of

"Five Stars" according to Mary. 1

Allen also initiates a promising dialogue with postcolonial theorists who have advanced external critiques, a dialogue oriented to decolonizing normative political theory together. Exposing weaknesses in the normative claims of Habermas, Honneth, and Forst and with a fresh interpretation of Adorno and Foucault, this book is stimulating and provocative for anyone interested in both the limitations and prospects of Critical Theory. (Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley)In this courageous and path-breaking text, Allen challenges critical theory to live up to its ow