Synopses & Reviews
From the outset, Nazism was marked by a keen appreciation for language's important role in controlling the masses, as Hitler's Mein Kampf showed as early as 1924. Accordingly, one of the first political forces they conscripted in their rise to power was a battalion of rhetoricians sent to the provinces and villages to preach the power of the language of Leben (life) to ordinary men and women. This fascinating study of Lebensphilosophie reexamines it as a new vocabulary of politically potent ideology through the career of one of its most prominent exponents, Ludwig Klages. Even a short list of Klages's admirers and critics would include many famous names from the era, among them Walter Benjamin, Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, and Georg Lukacs. His tremendous popularity among readers of German prefigured a cultural and philosophical crisis made possible by the political volatility of the Weimar Republic.
Review
to come
Review
'Ludwig Klages is long overdue for a critical study. Exceedingly brilliant, highly original, and always unconventional, he has been called 'the most fashionable philosopher of his age.' Klages straddled cultural and intellectual worlds from the pre-World War I Munich
bohème, to the Nazi elite, influencing virtually everyone of note from Simmel to Adorno. Nitzan Lebovic's singular achievement is to map the career of this extraordinary figure without losing sight of his paradoxes and labyrinthine itinerary.' - Anson Rabinbach, Princeton University, USA
'Nitzan Lebovic's study of Ludwig Klages' 'Life philosophy' is a major contribution to the history of contemporary German thought and to one of the essential components of Nazi ideology.' - Saul Friedlander, Distinguished Professor of History (emeritus), University of California-Los Angeles, USA
'Nitzan Lebovic's Philosophy of Life and Death is really four books in one: easily the best study available of the life and work of Ludwig Klages; a discerning analysis of the rhetoric and appeal of Lebensphilosophie; a provocative argument about the conjunction between this historical moment in the genealogy of biopolitics and current discussions of the topic under very different political signs; and an analysis of a key episode in the history of the peculiar intimate enmity between certain radical left and right thinkers in Europe's twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It's an important book on all four counts.' - John McCole, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Oregon
Synopsis
Some of the first figures the Nazis conscripted in their rise to power were rhetoricians devoted to popularizing the German vocabulary of Leben (life). This fascinating study reexamines this movement through one of its most prominent exponents, Ludwig Klages, revealing the philosophical-cultural crises and political volatility of the Weimar era.
About the Author
Nitzan Lebovic is Assistant Professor of History and Apter Chair of Holocaust Studies and Ethical Values at Lehigh University, USA. He is a historian of German and German Jewish history and published articles about German-Jewish history, political theory, and film.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Where It All Began
1. From the Beginning of Life to the End of the World
2. Living Experience, Expression, and Immediacy between 1895 and 1915
3. Ecstasy and Antihistoricism: Klages, Benjamin, Baeumler, 1914-1926
4. Alternative