This is the first book to provide a broad and comparative analysis of the relationship of these two influential thinkers to one another. Defying conventional appropriations of Nietzsche's and Adorno's thought, Bauer establishes crucial links between different traditions of critical thought, suggesting elective and selective affinities in the pursuit of a radicalized critique of ideology and culture. Against Habermas, Bauer argues that Nietzsche did not abandon the project of modernity, but rather achieved its most radical confrontation with the myths of the Enlightenment. Bauer's inquiry into Nietzsche's and Adorno's critiques of rationality, historicism, metaphysics, and Bildung culminates in an exposition of their readings of Wagner, who serves as a medium and supplement for their critiques of modern culture.