Archival Documents

As we have been preparing Postone’s papers for transfer to the archives, we also have been scanning select documents. We intend to share these on the website in the future.

A Preview of Reading Notes

Examples from the scanning include Postone’s extensive reading notes, which he used for both writing and teaching. These are of special value because they include not only notes on Marx and the Frankfurt School, but also on a wider range of authors, from classics like Sigmund Freud and Simone de Beauvoir, to poststructuralists and theorists of recent transformations of capitalism. 

Below you can find a few samples. Postone was an extraordinarily rigorous reader. This is reflected in his notes, where he recorded descriptive outlines of texts in black, followed by his questions, comments, and criticism, typically in red. We hope that these notes might reproduce some of the experience of reading texts along with him.

We intend to make many documents available here in the future, so please check back for updates.

Notes on Adorno’s Sociology and Psychology

Notes on Adorno's Reflections on Class Theory

Notes on Adorno’s Reflections on Class Theory

Notes on Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction

Notes on Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Notes on Marx’s Capital Vol. III

Notes on Foucault's Discipline and Punish

Notes on Foucault’s Discipline and Punish

Notes on Marx's Capital Volume III

Notes on Marx’s Capital Vol. III

Notes on Freud’s Introductory Lectures

Notes on Durkheim's Elementary Forms

Notes on Durkheim’s Elementary Forms

Notes on Freud's Interpretation of Dreams

Notes on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams