Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits Hardcover – February 15, 2022 by Peter Neumann

Description

Author: Neumann Peter

Package Dimensions: 0x210x788

Number Of Pages: 256

Release Date: 15-02-2022

Details: Product Description
An award-winning poet and philosopher reveals the history of the German idealist oasis where discussions of revolution, literature, beliefs, romance, and concepts gave birth to the modern worldAround the turn of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of young German poets and thinkers coursed to the town of Jena to make history. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had dealt a one-two punch to the dynastic system. Confidence in traditional social, political, and religious norms had been replaced by a profound uncertainty that was as terrifying for some as it was exhilarating for others. Nowhere was the excitement more palpable than among the extraordinary group of poets, philosophers, translators, and socialites who gathered in this Thuringian village of just four thousand residents.Jena became the place for the young and intellectually curious, the site of a new departure, of philosophical disruption. Influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, then an elder statesman and artistic eminence, the leading figures among the disruptors―the translator August Wilhelm Schlegel; the philosophers Friedrich “Fritz” Schlegel and Friedrich Schelling; the dazzling, controversial intellectual Caroline Schlegel, married to August; Dorothea Schlegel, a poet and translator, married to Fritz; and the poets Ludwig Tieck and Novalis―resolved to rethink the world, to establish a republic of free spirits. They didn’t just question inherited societal traditions; with their provocative views of the individual and of nature, they revolutionized our understanding of freedom and reality.With wit and elegance, Peter Neumann brings this remarkable circle of friends and rivals to life in Jena 1800, a work of intellectual history that is colorful and passionate, informative and intimate―as fresh and full of surprises as its subjects.
Review
“Neumann succeeds in capturing the heady atmosphere of this place and time. This invigorating aperitif will whet readers’ appetites for diving into the deep end of 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy.” ―Publishers Weekly”Philosophers and poets congregate in a university town, kindling both interpersonal intrigues and revolutionary ideas about freedom and self-understanding that would influence European thought for decades . . . Neumann adeptly narrates the philosophical advances that quickened in this heady environment. But his true fascination is Jena’s social milieu . . . The result is a quirky, fleet-footed intellectual history that foregrounds the human beings behind the ideas.” ―Brendan Driscoll, Booklist”Peter Neumann has taken a rich and important episode in intellectual history―the rise of German idealism at the turn of the nineteenth century―and created a fascinating and highly readable story of ideas, art, love and war. With a cast that includes Goethe, Fichte, Hegel, Hölderlin, Schiller, and Madame de Staël (and cameos by Spinoza and Kant), he shows why this small Prussian village in a revolutionary era deserves to be included in any account of modernity.” ―Steven Nadler, author of Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die”This delightfully eccentric book breathes new life into the revolutionary ideas birthed in turn-of-the-century Jena. Peter Neumann has channeled the experimental spirit of his Romantic subjects to create an ingenious fusion of philosophy and art, imaginative biography and intellectual history. Crammed with illuminating insights―and irresistible gossip―Jena 1800 transports readers to a world intoxicated with the possibilities of thought.” ―Clare Carlisle, author of Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard”This is the way the history of ideas ought to be written: it’s colorful and clever. A wonderful pleasure to read.” ―Wolfram Eilenberger, author of Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy”With light, fast-paced clarity, Jena 1800 de