Not available to order

Publication date:

26 January 2012

Length of book:

554 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739140741

The Weimar Moment’s evocative assault on closure and political reaction, its offering of democracy against the politics of narrow self-interest cloaked in nationalist appeals to Volk and “community” – or, as would be the case in Nazi Germany, “race” – cannot but appeal to us today. This appeal –its historical grounding and content, its complexities and tensions, its variegated expressions across the networks of power and thought – is the essential context of the present volume, whose basic premise is unhappiness with Hegel’s remark that we learn no more from history than we cannot learn from it. The challenge of the papers in this volume is to provide the material to confront the present effectively drawing from what we can and do understand.
Weimar’s ghostly presence is brought home, in its range and continuing relevance, is this splendid array of carefully crafted and integrated essays. It is a singular addition to the literature.