In the social sciences and humanities it is fashionable to use the language of a critical theory of society. While orthodoxy in these disciplines has often meant a commitment to the advancement of objective knowledge, to understanding the world "as it really is," critical theory has usually involved attempts to reveal the philosophical incoherence and political perniciousness of that commitment. The social disciplines, according to advocates of critical theory, must play a role in changing the world so as to help emancipate those on the margins of society by providing them with insights and intellectual tools. In a provocative study of critical social theory, Stephen Leonard takes these emancipatory goals as standards against which critical theory must be judged. Leonard shows how such goals are established but not met by those thinkers usually associated with the idea of a critical theory--such as Marx, the members of the Frankfurt School, Habermas, and Foucault. Drawing on examples of "critical theory in practice," he shows how dependency theory, Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy, liberation theology, and feminist theory contribute to a clearer understanding of how social and political emancipation can be pursued in ways that are philosophically rigorous and theoretically sound.