Modernist Imagination

Warren Breckman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and executive editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas.

"This volume illustrates what it means to do intellectual history and demonstrates why intellectual history remains important, especially in the context of... the ‘political history of ideas’."  ·  German Studies Review“Each essay, in its own right, is accomplished, well written, and highly engaging (even when one disagrees with its claims).”  ·  H-German

• Editors’ PrefaceChapter 1. Martin Jay and the Dialectics of Intellectual HistoryLloyd KramerPART I: INTELLECTUAL HISTORYChapter 2. The Kiss of Lamourette: ‘Possibilism’ or ‘Christian Democracy’?David SorkinChapter 3. Selves without Qualities: Duchamp, Musil, and the History of SelfhoodJerrold SeigelChapter 4. Liberty and the ‘Coming-into-Being’ of Natural Law: Hans Kelsen and Ernst CassirerGregory B. MoynahanChapter 5. The Artwork Beyond Itself: Adorno, Beethoven, and Late StylePeter E. GordonChapter 6. Marxism and Alterity: Claude Lefort and the Critique of TotalitySamuel MoynChapter 7. The Return of the King: Hegelianism and Post-Marxism in Zizek and NancyWarren BreckmanChapter 8. Paradigm Shift: The Speculation of Downcast EyesRosalind KraussPART II: VIOLENCE, MEMORY, IDENTITYChapter 9. Memory Culture at an Impasse: Memorials in Berlin and New YorkAndreas HuyssenChapter 10. Against Grandiloquence: ‘Victim’s Culture’ and Jewish MemoryCarolyn J. DeanChapter 11. Paris, Capital of AntifascismAnson RabinbachChapter 12. Toward a Critique of ViolenceDominick LaCapraChapter 13. Democratization, Turks, and the Burden of German HistoryRita ChinChapter 14. The Gewaltfrage and Postwar West: German Generations in the 1960sA. Dirk Moses and Elliot NeamanPART III: CRITICAL THEORY AND GLOBAL POLITICSChapter 15. From ‘The Dialectic of Enlightenment’ to ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ and the Genocide Convention: Adorno and Horkheimer in the Company of Arendt and LemkinSeyla BenhabibChapter 16. Western Marxism, Morality, and PoliticsDick HowardChapter 17. Sovereign Equality vs. Imperial Right: The Battle Over the ‘New World Order’Jean CohenChapter 18. The Myths of Modern Identity as Ersatz IdeologiesDetlef Claussen and Michael WerzPART IV: CODAChapter 19. An Interview with Martin JayBibliography of the Writings of Martin JayContributorsIndex