
The Enemy
An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt
Gopal Balakrishnan(Author)
Verso Books (Publisher)
Published on 17. September 2000
Book
Hardback
318 pages
978-1-85984-760-2 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
The writings of Carl Schmitt form what is arguably the most disconcerting, original, and yet still unfamiliar body of twentieth-century political thought. In the English-speaking world, he is terra incognita, a name associated with Nazism, the author of a largely untranslated oeuvre forming no recognizable system, coming to us from a disturbing place and time in the form of fragments.
The Enemy is a comprehensive intertextual reconstruction and analysis of all of Schmitt's major works-his books, articles and pamphlets from 1919-1950-presented in an arresting narrative form. This form reveals the complex ways in which his ideas took shape in the intertwining time lines of civil and world wars and retraces the path of his interventions on the constantly shifting battlefield of the inter-war era.
The lines of thought which emerge out of this meticulous study on democracy, constitutional law and international law will be startling to those who know nothing about Schmitt, as well as to those who have had to rely on the existing secondary literature to form an opinion of him. For the first time, the stature and topicality of this disturbing figure is incontrovertibly demonstrated.
The Enemy is a comprehensive intertextual reconstruction and analysis of all of Schmitt's major works-his books, articles and pamphlets from 1919-1950-presented in an arresting narrative form. This form reveals the complex ways in which his ideas took shape in the intertwining time lines of civil and world wars and retraces the path of his interventions on the constantly shifting battlefield of the inter-war era.
The lines of thought which emerge out of this meticulous study on democracy, constitutional law and international law will be startling to those who know nothing about Schmitt, as well as to those who have had to rely on the existing secondary literature to form an opinion of him. For the first time, the stature and topicality of this disturbing figure is incontrovertibly demonstrated.
Reviews / Votes
Carl Schmitt is probably the major twentieth-century political theorist whose work remains internationally unknown. Balakrishnan's comprehensive and sophisticated intellectual biography should rectify this. Here is a book which everyone interested in modern political theory should read. -- Michael MannMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
685 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85984-760-2 (9781859847602)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

Book
09/2002
Verso Books
€28.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Gopal Balakrishnan is the author of The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt, and editor of Debating "Empire" and (with Benedict Anderson) Mapping the Nation. A member of the New Left Review editorial board, he teaches Contemporary Theory at the University of California, Santa Cruz.