Between Politics and Culture: German Ideas 1890 - 1970

Description

This course will examine some of the major intellectual currents in modern German history. It will make you familiar with important thinkers and some of their texts, but also some lesser known individuals and their contributions to intellectual history. The course will offer an introduction to the field of intellectual history, and a means of understanding fundamental concepts and ideas that have been shaped by, and have shaped the course of recent German history. The seminar will discuss different aspects of ‘modernity’, their different meanings and understandings, and trace the development of these from the late nineteenth to the twentieth century. The aim is to study how social developments, political changes, as well as personal preferences and idiosyncrasies affected and shaped the work of these intellectuals, who in turn made a major contribution to modern culture.