Escape from Authority: The Perspectives of Erich Fromm

by John H. Schaar

Although Erich Fromm has long enjoyed an international reputation as a social critic and philosopher, this book represents the first serious critical examination of his work and thought.

Charting the ethical-philosophical territory which Fromm has made his own, Professor Schaar divides it into three major parts: (1) Fromm's analysis of human nature and the human condition; (2) his view of how modern society came to be sick, together with his diagnosis of the sickness itself; (3) and, finally, Fromm's vision of the good life and the good society.

As Schaar states in his Prologue: "[Fromm's] sorrow is for Prometheus bound--man chained, isolated, suffering. The vision is of Prometheus unbound--man freed, his wounds healed, restored to strength; man in the image of God. All Fromm's work draws its meaning from this center."

With this theme as the subject, Schaar then conducts his dialogue with Erich Fromm. No mere restatement of Fromm's own writings, Escape from Authority is, on the contrary, a lucid, penetrating, and at times controversial assessment of the contributions of one of the major thinkers of our time.

361 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961