Columbia’s turn toward empiricism and the war loosened the Institut’s ties with the university

Evidence

The war years brought a serious reevaluation of the Institut’s goals and a gradual redefinition of its institutional structure. Horkheimer’s circulatory illness, which necessitated the move to California, and the increased involvement of other Institut members in government service meant that the type of connection with Columbia enjoyed by the Institut since 1934 was no longer possible. Moreover, a new internal factor within the university’s sociology department spelled potential trouble for the future. The struggle for control between the department’s more speculative wing, led by Robert Maclver, and its empirically oriented counterpart around Robert Lynd had been resolved largely in favor of the latter. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 655

Categorization

• XREF: Explains the institutional background for the later move to California and the shift to empirical research that led to Studies in Prejudice and The Authoritarian Personality. — connects to: Former Institut members scattered into American universities and government rather than returning together — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 855; Columbia accepted the Institute partly because it was judged an apolitical research agency — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 584; The Institute remained socially isolated from Columbia’s professoriate despite its relocation there — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1230

Broader Connections

• Former Institut members scattered into American universities and government rather than returning together #expands (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 855