The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics

by Frederick C. Beiser (Editor)

The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics contains all the essential political writings of Friedrich Schlegel, Schleiermacher and Novalis during the formative period of romantic thought (1797 to 1803). The early romantics had an ambition still relevant today: to find a middle path between conservatism and liberalism, between a community ethic and individual freedom. Frederick Beiser's edition comprises all kinds of texts, from essays to jottings from notebooks. All have been translated anew, many for the first time.

Genres: Philosophy, Romanticism, Politics

252 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 1996

About the author

Frederick C. Beiser, one of the leading scholars of German Idealism, is a Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. Prior to joining Syracuse, he was a member of the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington where he received a 1999-2000 NEH Faculty Fellowship. He has also taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Harvard and Yale University. Beiser earned his DPhil. degree from Oxford University under the direction of Charles Taylor and Isaiah Berlin.

Beiser's first book, The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard, 1987) was widely influential in revising the commonly held, but notorious accounts of German Idealism. In this book, Beiser sought to reconstruct the background of German Idealism through the narration of the story of the Spinoza or Pantheism controversy. Consequently, a great many figures, whose importance was hardly recognized by the English speaking philosophers, were given their proper due.
Beiser has also written on the German Romantics and 19th century British philosophy.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome beyond belief. An antidote to people who equate all things German with fascism and authoritarianism. These folks were concerned with changing the world through aesthetic and generally interesting eclectic philosophy.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is...not my shit. it’s fine for what it is. translation is readable and detailed. it is what it claims to be. i, however, am not the audience that eats this up