In its essence critical theory is western Marxist thought with the emphasis moved from the
liberation of the working class to broader issues of individual agency. Critical theory emerged
in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School which sought to diagnose and cure the ills
of society. In the second edition of this Very Short Introduction Bronner provides sketches of
major critical thinkers such as Ernst Bloch Theodor Adorno and Jurgen Habermas as well as
many of the seminal texts and empirical investigations of critical theory.