German Cosmopolitan Social Thought and the Idea of the West: Voices from Weimar

There has been considerable interest in recent years in German social thinkers of the Weimar era. Generally, this has focused on reactionary and nationalist figures such as Schmitt and Heidegger. In this book, Austin Harrington offers a broader account of the German intellectual legacy of the period. He explores the ideas of a circle of left-liberal cosmopolitan thinkers (Troeltsch, Scheler, T nnies, Max Weber, Alfred Weber, Mannheim, Jaspers, Curtius, and Simmel) who responded to Germany's crisis by rejecting the popular appeal of nationalism. Instead, they promoted pan-European reconciliation based on notions of a shared European heritage between East and West. Harrington examines their concepts of nationhood, religion, and 'civilization' in the context of their time and in their bearing on subsequent debates about European identity and the place of the modern West in global social change. The result is a groundbreaking contribution to current questions in social, cultural and historical theory.

Author: Austin Harrington
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/19/2016
Pages: 450
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.69lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781107110915

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2017

About the Author
Harrington, Austin: - Austin Harrington is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds. His other publications include Modern Social Theory: An Introduction (2005), Art and Social Theory (2004) and Hermeneutic Dialogue and Social Science: A Critique of Gadamer and Habermas (2001).