Overview

Tracing Austrian intellectual life from Maria Theresa to Hitler’s annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, this innovative book offers a precise and engaging account of Austrian intellectual history since the Enlightenment. Here, David S. Luft begins by locating his narrative in the region known as Cisleithanian Austria, the area to the west of the Leitha River that was the basis for the modern Austrian state after 1740. Chapter 2 provides a history of the German-speaking intellectual life of these central lands of the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria and Bohemia) from the Enlightenment to annexation by Nazi Germany. Chapters 3 to 5 identify the most important philosophers, writers, and social thinkers who contributed to Austrian intellectual life in the period between 1740 and 1938/1939 and address the intellectual significance of their work. Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Luft’s book brings out the contributions of major figures such as Wittgenstein, Hofmannsthal, Musil, Kafka, Rilke, and Freud, but also draws attention to less well-known figures such as Bolzano, Brentano, Grillparzer, Stifter, Broch, and Hayek.

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9781350202207

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Reviews

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, University of Chicago

Author Information

David S. Luft is Horning Endowed Chair in the Humanities (Emeritus) at Oregon State University, USA. He is the author of Eros and Inwardness in Vienna: Weininger, Musil, Doderer (2003) and Robert Musil and the Crisis of European Culture: 1880-1942 (2nd Ed. 1984). He is also the editor and translator for the volume, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the Austrian Idea: Selected Essays and Addresses, 1906-1927 (2011), as well as being on the editorial board for the Journal of Austrian Studies/Modern Austrian Literature and Culture. Luft was also president of the Austrian Studies Association (2012-2014) and Executive Secretary of the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History (2006-2009).

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