Loss and Recovery of Truth – Selected Writings of Gerhart Niemeyer

Gerhart Niemeyer (1907–1997), a prominent twentieth-century Conservative thinker, immigrated to the United States from his native Germany in 1937. He taught at Princeton and Oglethorpe Universities and worked at the State Department and the Council on Foreign Relations before accepting a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame in 1955, where he taught until 1992. Between 1976 and 1982 he also taught at Hillsdale College in Michigan. An expert on international law and on Communist Ideology he was the author of An Inquiry into Soviet Mentality, Handbook on Communism, Deceitful Peace: A New Look at the Soviet Threat, Between Nothingness and Paradise, and Law Without Force: The Function of Politics in International Law, as well as numerous essays and book reviews.Michael Henry studied political theory under Gerhart Niemeyer at the University of Notre Dame, where he received his doctorate in 1974. Since 1977 he has been teaching philosophy at St. John’s University in New York. He is also the Series Editor of The Library of Conservative Thought of Transaction Publishers.

• IntroductionAcknowledgmentsPart I. Niemeyer, the Man 1. From Europe, With Love2. Letters3. What, to a Christian, is the Meaning of a “Changing, Technologically Oriented, Frustrated, and Fragmented World”?4. The Hospice Movement and the Problem of Death (excerpts)5. How to Talk to Mature People About DeathPart II. The Loss of Truth 6. This Terrible Century7. Forces that Shape the Twentieth Century8. Loss of Reality: Gnosticism and Modern Nihilism9. Variations on a Theme10. Ideologies, Political Theories, and Societies11. The Communist Mind (excerpts)12. Will the Soviet Reality Please Stand Up? (excerpt)13. The Tourist’s Soviet Russia14. Ethics and Politics in Communism (excerpts)15. The “Autonomous” Man16. Confrontation of Opinions or Dialectic Discussion?17. E Nobilissima Visione Regna Inferna18. Beyond “Democratic Disorder”19. Two Socialisms20. Anti-Communism Old Hat?21. Common Sense22. Counterculture?23. Moral Dishonesty?24. Rulers Without Power25. See No Evil26. The Reality of Totalitarian Despotism27. What Happened to Morality?28. Language and Action29. Modern Politics30. Of Human Dignity31. States Without Citizens32. The State and the Citizen33. The Evil Society34. Aliens In Their Own Nations35. Toward Totalitarian Simplicity?36. Public Interest and Private Utility37. Structures, Revolutions and Christianity38. Systems of History and Public Policy Goals (excerpts)39. The Church and the Ideological Temptation40. A “Church” Without a Name? (excerpts)41. Beyond Institutions of Power and Patterns of Profit (excerpts)42. On Authority and Alienation: A MeditationPart III. The Recovery of TruthPolitical Theory 43. A Reappraisal of the Doctrine of Free Speech44. Stewardship—Theory and Practice45. What Price Politics?46. Humanism, Positivism, Immorality47. What Price “Natural Law”?48. The Loss and Recovery of History49. Foreign Policy and Morality: A Contemporary Perspective (excerpts)50. Risk or Betrayal? The Crossroads of Western Policy51. National Self-Defense and Political Existence52. Nations, Myths, and Mores53. Ideas Have Also Roots54. Limits of the LawEducation 55. The Commitments of Political Education56. Crisis and Renewal57. The New Need for the Catholic University58. Christian Studies and the Liberal Arts College59. Letter to Rev. James T. Burtchaell, C.S.C.60. The Glory and Misery of EducationConservatism 61. Russell Kirk and Ideology (excerpts)62. The Prophetic Calling of Solzhenitsyn63. Conservatism and the Modern Age64. Conservatism and the New Political Theory65. The Burkean View of Politics66. Review of Conservatism in America by Clinton Rossiter67. Is There a Conservative Mission?68. Too Early and Too MuchFaith 69. Two Commencement Addresses70. The Recovery of “The Sacred”?71. The Church, the Shepherds, and the Spirit of Our Time72. Christianity in Public Life: Real vs. Counterfeit Hope73. The Politics of Hope74. Guilt and History75. Reason and Faith: The Fallacious Antithesis76. History and CivilizationEndnotesPublications by Gerhart NiemeyerIndex