North American Critical Theory after Postmodernism explores the emergence of a generation of critical theorists whose lives and scholarship unfolded in the midst of what has been called "the postmodern turn." I locate this generation in the 1970s and 1980s in the work of Ben Agger, Andrew Arato, Robert J. Antonio, Seyla Benhabib, Craig Calhoun, Nancy Fraser, Douglas Kellner, and Timothy W. Luke. While certainly not a comprehensive list of the North American critical theorists who belong to this tradition, each of these authors offers a contemporary statement on critical theory, builds on the work of Western Marxism and the Frankfurt School, and engages sagaciously with postmodernism¹ without proposing a radical break from the tradition of emancipatory telos and the practice of immanent critique. This unique engagement results for each author in an evolving and distinctly political perspective on varying contemporary themes.