During the war hysteria, as Nietzsche’s philosophy was yoked to German militarism, Bourne used it to critique the “herd instinct” of nationalism at home and imagine a transnational cosmopolitanism that “breathes a larger air.”94 He followed the trends in Nietzsche exegesis, writing acidic reviews of the “denatured Nietzsche” that was emerging in American publications. “It is always a little incongruous to see a great mind expounded by a lesser one,” he blanched, “and nowhere is the incongruity more impressive than in the case of Nietzsche. He is too electric, too poetical, too subtle in his
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