Heritage of Our Times

by Ernst Bloch, Neville Plaice (Translator), Stephen Plaice (Translator)

First published in Switzerland in 1935 and now available for the first time in English translation, Heritage of Our Times is a bold work of cultural criticism by a major twentieth-century German philosopher. Recalling work by Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt School, Ernst Bloch's study of everyday life and politics during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany is a brilliant historical analysis of the cultural conditions leading to German fascism.

A half-century later, Bloch's prescient meditations on culture and politics still retain their explosive power and are certain to provoke controversy and discussion among cultural critics, philosophers, social theorists, and historians. In their Introduction, the translators contextualize the book within the political and intellectual tendencies of the period and Bloch's other work.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, History

377 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Ernst Bloch was one of the great philosophers and political intellectuals of twentieth-century Germany. Among his works to have appeared in English are The Spirit of Utopia (Stanford University Press, 2000), Literary Essays (Stanford University Press, 1998), The Utopian Function of Art and Literature: Selected Essays (1987), and The Principle of Hope (1986).

Reviews

[jerical · Rating 5 out of 5]

powerful work. a great starting point for bloch's concept of the "nonsynchronic," which really feels like it needs more fleshing out to postcolonial contexts. the undeniably erudite makeup of bloch's prose may seem foreboding initially, but the more one trusts his quasi-obtuse dialectical analyses, the better off they'll be. to borrow a recent description from twitter, his heterodoxy only deepens his orthodoxy when it comes to marxism, revolution, and the dangers of fascism. keep him close by when working through adorno.