Synopses & Reviews
In this second volume of Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist, Edward Timms takes up Krausand#8217;s story in November 1918, when the satirist responded to the creation of the new republics with a defiant hope, invoking international law against the dual threat of reactionary politics and irresponsible media. While contemporaries like Walter Benjamin regarded Kraus as heroically isolated, this book places him within a dynamic field of cultural production. Timms highlights the court cases Kraus pursued with his lawyer Oskar Samek and the theatrical projects that earned him Brechtand#8217;s friendship.In the final section of the book, the author refutes the legend that Kraus responded with stunned silence to Hitlerand#8217;s seizure of power. His career culminated in Third Walpurgis Night, an analysis of Nazi ideology that has proved enduringly influential. Timms concludes that Krausand#8217;s lifelong critique of the media, combining Orwelland#8217;s political radicalism with Joyceand#8217;s linguistic playfulness, incisively anticipates the propaganda techniques of our own age.
Review
and#8220;Edward Timms meticulously interprets this major writerand#8217;s most complex period of literary, cultural, and political activity, providing what amounts to an entire cultural history of the period.and#8221;and#8212;Professor Gilbert Carr, Trinity College Dublin
Review
and#8220;Timms establishes himself as the premier Kraus scholar writing in English.andnbsp;. . . Marked by impeccable scholarship and fine style.andnbsp; . . Essential.and#8221;
About the Author
Edward Timms is Research Professor in History at the Centre for German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex, and a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is the author of Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist: Culture and Catastrophe in Habsburg Vienna, published by Yale University Press.