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You didn't specify what kind of enlightenment you wish for. Horkheimer and Adorno were principal
members of the Frankfurt School of Social Research, who left Germany during the era of the Third
Reich and worked on a number of sociological projects in the USA. In order to understand what the
Dialectic of Enlightenment is all about, you need to first be in the clear that both were not only
sociologists, but also socialists, specifically western type Marxists. Sometime in the late Forties, they
worked together on this book, in which they question the genuine meaning of the term
"Enlightenment" and seek to analyse out what kinds of prejudices — philosophical, political,
sociological, literary etc — this Enlightenment laid into the cradle of modern (post industrial
revolution) Europe. The principal issues revolve around such fundamental questions as: Is
enlightenment truly rational? Well, what then is rationality? Do we truly understand what we mean by
that term or are just patting ourselves on the back?
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If you want more, I suggest you read some of the book. I would almost do to just read the first 50
pages, which contains the whole philosophy; the rest of it comprises two sections designed to throw
into sharp relief two 'special cases' of application, in the manner of excursuses; and then there is a
small collection of shorter pieces which didn't find their way into the book proper. Although written in
the Forties, the book's impact came in the Sixties to Seventies and coincided roughly with the
widespread student unrests.
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