The Politics of Cultural Despair

The Politics of Cultural Despair PDF Author: Fritz R. Stern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence of three leading critics of modern Germany, this study will demonstrate the dangers and dilemmas of a particular type of cultural despair. Lagarde, Langbehn, and Moeller van den Bruck-their active lives spanning the years from the middle of the past century to the threshold of Hitler's Third Reich-attacked, often incisively and justly, the deficiencies of German culture and the German spirit. But they were more than the critics of Germany's cultural crisis; they were its symptoms and victims as well. Unable to endure the ills which they diagnosed and which they had experienced in their own lives, they sought to become prophets who would point the way to a national rebirth. Hence, they propounded all manner of reforms, ruthless and idealistic, nationalistic and utopian. It was this leap from despair to utopia across all existing reality that gave their thought its fantastic quality.

The Politics of Cultural Despair

The Politics of Cultural Despair PDF Author: Fritz R. Stern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book

Book Description
This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence of three leading critics of modern Germany, this study will demonstrate the dangers and dilemmas of a particular type of cultural despair. Lagarde, Langbehn, and Moeller van den Bruck-their active lives spanning the years from the middle of the past century to the threshold of Hitler's Third Reich-attacked, often incisively and justly, the deficiencies of German culture and the German spirit. But they were more than the critics of Germany's cultural crisis; they were its symptoms and victims as well. Unable to endure the ills which they diagnosed and which they had experienced in their own lives, they sought to become prophets who would point the way to a national rebirth. Hence, they propounded all manner of reforms, ruthless and idealistic, nationalistic and utopian. It was this leap from despair to utopia across all existing reality that gave their thought its fantastic quality.

The Politics of Cultural Despair

The Politics of Cultural Despair PDF Author: Fritz R. Stern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520026261
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
"An enlightening and solidly documented book of great value to those who would like to trace the ideologoical roots behind the most erratic and dramatic politics phases of modern Germany."--"American Political Science Review" "If only because it presents the intellectual and emotional background to National Socialism with rare clarity and penetrating analysis of its several and often sharply contrasting components, the ably written and profoundly interesting book ... would be of importance ... With its useful footnotes, selective bibliography and good index Professor Stern's study is American scholarship at its best."-"International Affairs"

The Politics of Cultural Despair

The Politics of Cultural Despair PDF Author: Fritz Richard Stern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520026438
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
"An enlightening and solidly documented book of great value to those who would like to trace the ideolgoical roots behind the most erratic and dramatic politics phases of modern Germany."--"American Political Science Review""If only because it presents the intellectual and emotional background to National Socialism with rare clarity and penetrating analysis of its several and often sharply contrasting components, the ably written and profoundly interesting book...would be of importance....With its useful footnotes, selective bibliography and good index Professor Stern's study is American scholarship at its best."-"International Affairs"

The Politics of Cultural Despair

The Politics of Cultural Despair PDF Author: Fritz Richard Stern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description


The American Culture of Despair

The American Culture of Despair PDF Author: Richard K. Fenn
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527510336
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
Recent developments have made many social scientists and commentators wonder whether the United States is still a relatively modern, secular, and democratic society. Instead, America shows signs of the cultural despair that preceded the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany. Taking a careful look at such critical moments as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Depression, the assassination of President Lincoln, and the eves both of the Civil War and of the American Revolution, this book shows that Americans have long shown authoritarian and even fascist tendencies: signs of despair that the nation is running out of time. In these critical moments, it finds evidence of a regressive cycle consisting of crisis, followed by the sanctification of central authority, and further crisis. With its deep roots in Anglo-American culture, the current crisis awaits decisive resolution.

Moments of Despair

Moments of Despair PDF Author: David Silkenat
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807877956
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
During the Civil War era, black and white North Carolinians were forced to fundamentally reinterpret the morality of suicide, divorce, and debt as these experiences became pressing issues throughout the region and nation. In Moments of Despair, David Silkenat explores these shifting sentiments. Antebellum white North Carolinians stigmatized suicide, divorce, and debt, but the Civil War undermined these entrenched attitudes, forcing a reinterpretation of these issues in a new social, cultural, and economic context in which they were increasingly untethered from social expectations. Black North Carolinians, for their part, used emancipation to lay the groundwork for new bonds of community and their own interpretation of social frameworks. Silkenat argues that North Carolinians' attitudes differed from those of people outside the South in two respects. First, attitudes toward these cultural practices changed more abruptly and rapidly in the South than in the rest of America, and second, the practices were interpreted through a prism of race. Drawing upon a robust and diverse body of sources, including insane asylum records, divorce petitions, bankruptcy filings, diaries, and personal correspondence, this innovative study describes a society turned upside down as a consequence of a devastating war.

Twilight of Democracy

Twilight of Democracy PDF Author: Anne Applebaum
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385545819
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document ... is Applebaum's answer." —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism. From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. Elegantly written and urgently argued, Twilight of Democracy is a brilliant dissection of a world-shaking shift and a stirring glimpse of the road back to democratic values.

The Routledge Handbook of French Politics and Culture

The Routledge Handbook of French Politics and Culture PDF Author: Marion Demossier
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317325893
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of French Politics and Culture provides a detailed survey of the highly differentiated field of research on French politics, society and culture across the social sciences and humanities. The handbook includes contributions from the most eminent authors in their respective fields who bring their authority to bear on the task of outlining the current state-of-the art research in French Studies across disciplinary boundaries. As such, it represents an innovative as well as an authoritative survey of the field, representing an opportunity for a critical examination of the contrasts and the continuities in methodological and disciplinary orientations in a single volume. The Routledge Handbook of French Politics and Culture will be essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners involved in, and actively concerned about, research on French politics, society and culture.

Identity and Pleasure

Identity and Pleasure PDF Author: Ariel Heryanto
Publisher: NUS Press
ISBN: 9971698218
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Identity and Pleasure: The Politics of Indonesian Screen Culture critically examines what media and screen culture reveal about the ways urban-based Indonesians attempted to redefine their identity in the first decade of this century. Through a richly nuanced analysis of expressions and representations found in screen culture (cinema, television and social media), it analyses the waves of energy and optimism, and the disillusionment, disorientation and despair, that arose in the power vacuum that followed the dramatic collapse of the militaristic New Order government. While in-depth analyses of identity and political contestation within the nation are the focus of the book, trans-national engagements and global dimensions are a significant part of the story in each chapter. The author focuses on contemporary cultural politics in Indonesia, but each chapter contextualizes current circumstances by setting them within a broader historical perspective.

Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety

Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety PDF Author: SEAN HIER
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113519811X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety is a collection of original essays written by some of the world’s leading social scientists. It seeks to provide unique insight into the importance of moral panic as a routine feature of everyday life, whilst also developing an integrated framework for moral panic research by widening the scope of scholarship in the area. Many of the key twenty-first century contributions to moral panic theory have moved beyond the parameters of the sociology of deviance to consider the importance of moral panic for identity formation, national security, industrial risk, and character formation. Reflecting this growth, the book brings together recognized moral panic researchers with prominent scholars in moral regulation, social problems, cultural fear, and health risks, allowing for a more careful and critical discussion around the cultural and political significance of moral panic to emerge. This book will prove valuable reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students on courses such as politics and the media, regulatory policy, the body and identity, theory and political sociology, and sociology of culture.