The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History

Reviews / Votes

Luft's book is one of unusual breadth and truly interdisciplinary scope. It will appeal most immediately to graduate students and fellow scholars of Central Europe. The thematically and geographically uninitiated ... will find themselves on a steep and rewarding learning curve-and may be well-advised to spend time pondering the historical maps included in the introductory chapters-on two hundred beautifully argued pages. * Austrian History Yearbook * The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History is an impressive attempt to explore different perspectives in the formulation of cultural and social values between German intellectuals and writers and their Austrian counterparts, from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth centuries. Not only will this comparative study of German and Austrian liberal culture in the modern period be very useful to Habsburg historians and to students of modern European intellectual history, but it should find a welcome audience among scholars and students of modern German history and culture. The book will also be valuable for scholars of contemporary Austrian nation-building and national identity, since it seeks to draw out the self-perceived distinctiveness of Austrian intellectuals writing in the context of the larger German linguistic realm. A wonderfully ambitious book. * John W. Boyer, Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of History and the College, University of Chicago, USA * In this eminently readable book David Luft, a leading American expert on modern Austrian cultural history, succeeds in moving beyond the established praise of Austria's artistic and musical achievements, especially of Vienna at 1900, and the accompanying neglect of its intellectual legacy. It is Luft's magnum opus of his life-long pursuit of clarifying the place of Austrian creativeness within the larger culture of German-speaking Central Europa. He moves with authority between the Austrian enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the underappreciated intellectual contributions of philosphers like Bolzano, Brentano, Mach, Wittgenstein and the achievements of Austrian social scientists and economists like Hayek and Schumpeter and, of course, Freud. Clarifying the concept of Austrian culture also means an extensive reckoning of its deep roots in Bohemia and Moravia and the centuries-old ties between Vienna and Prague. Luft's "Austrian dimension" is indispensable for an understanding of the intellectual history of German-speaking Central Europe. * Frank Trommler, Professor Emeritus of German, University of Pennsylvania, USA * The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History, convincingly written by one of the most prominent scholars of Austrian cultural history, is a fascinating story on Austrian thinking in the context of the German speaking world in Central Europe (esp. in Vienna and Prague). Its novelty lies in the description and interpretation of mostly Jewish thinkers in philosophy, the human sciences, economics, and literature from the Enlightenment to the Anschluss, on the one side, as well as in the geographical focus on the Austrian core land together with Bohemia/Moravia as part of Cisleithanian Habsburg Monarchy, on the other. This book is expected to become another milestone of comparative Austrian intellectual history up to Fin de siecleliberalism andmodernity, thereby complementing the pathbreaking books of William Johnston, Allan Janik/Stephen Toulmin, Carl Schorske, and Steven Beller. * Friedrich Stadler, Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Vienna, Austria *