Hitler’s Philosophers

Oxford academic Sherratt (Adorno’s Positive Dialectic) thoroughly examines the thinkers whose ideas Hitler marshaled to his aid before, during, and after the Holocaust, including German philosophers Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, as well as those whose opinions he sought desperately to silence (e.g., Jewish theorists Edmund Husserl, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor Adorno) in this captivating narrative critical history. The author argues that reputable scholars like jurist Carl Schmitt and philosopher Martin Heidegger readily lent prestige to Hitler, helping him “make men into minions” and “vilify Jews and deify war.” Outfitted with this intellectual ammunition, the Führer went powerfully forward with his “desecrating vision” and “furious will” to indoctrinate a generation of Germans and murder millions. But of the entire cast of characters, none is more compelling than the unsure Hannah Arendt, whose wavering opinions on Judaism and Zionism resulted in her receiving an “unconsecrated” burial in New York State. Ultimately, Sherratt is right to question the value of “the thoughts of men who are unable to reflect critically upon the most brutal of human regimes,” and her sobering account reveals how the “racism, war and tyranny” that culminated in the concentration camps originated in the Ivory Tower, and that brutality ever lurks “beneath the surface of apparent civilization.” A brilliantly conceived work of genuine scholarship, this book is fascinating and important. Agent: Ian Drury, Sheil Land Associates. (May)