This is a brilliant intellectual history of the philosophical positions and movements that in a way fermented to produce National Socialism. Rare erudition, wonderful stylizations, Lukasc is an amazing writer and an amazing mind. Sometimes his Leninist sympathies intrude, but for those interested in what led up to National Socialism in the field of philosophy, this text is amazingly well written and well researched. If you are interested in the history of German philosophy, to the point of being interested in minor thinkers, then this is worth reading. Ultimately, this is a book about Irrationalism, and how its various intellectual versions led to 'Hitlerism'. Read it in tandem with Hitler and Aesthetics ... another excellent book (not by GL though). The Epilogue is really interesting ... as he predicts that unlike Germany, which was interested in giving philosophical justifications to its irrationalism, the USA would , in confronting the USSR in the Cold War, unabashedly accept and exhibit its irrational interests in raw power. It's everywhere today.

This is a brilliant intellectual history of the philosophical positions and movements that in a way fermented to produce National Socialism. Rare erudition, wonderful stylizations, Lukasc is an amazing writer and an amazing mind. Sometimes his Leninist sympathies intrude, but for those interested in what led up to National Socialism in the field of philosophy, this text is amazingly well written and well researched. If you are interested in the history of German philosophy, to the point of being interested in minor thinkers, then this is worth reading. Ultimately, this is a book about Irrationalism, and how its various intellectual versions led to 'Hitlerism'. Read it in tandem with Hitler and Aesthetics ... another excellent book (not by GL though). The Epilogue is really interesting ... as he predicts that unlike Germany, which was interested in giving philosophical justifications to its irrationalism, the USA would , in confronting the USSR in the Cold War, unabashedly accept and exhibit its irrational interests in raw power. It's everywhere today.

This is a brilliant intellectual history of the philosophical positions and movements that in a way fermented to produce National Socialism. Rare erudition, wonderful stylizations, Lukasc is an amazing writer and an amazing mind. Sometimes his Leninist sympathies intrude, but for those interested in what led up to National Socialism in the field of philosophy, this text is amazingly well written and well researched. If you are interested in the history of German philosophy, to the point of being interested in minor thinkers, then this is worth reading. Ultimately, this is a book about Irrationalism, and how its various intellectual versions led to 'Hitlerism'. Read it in tandem with Hitler and Aesthetics ... another excellent book (not by GL though). The Epilogue is really interesting ... as he predicts that unlike Germany, which was interested in giving philosophical justifications to its irrationalism, the USA would , in confronting the USSR in the Cold War, unabashedly accept and exhibit its irrational interests in raw power. It's everywhere today.