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The Pen Confronts the Sword

The Pen Confronts the Sword

By Zakai, Avihu

Published by State University of New York Press

English 376 pages 2018
Estimated reading time: 6 h 54 min
PDF

About this book

Demonstrates how four books by dissident German intellectuals served as a rebuke to the Nazi regime. During 1942, the decisive battles of Stalingrad and El Alamein raged and the Nazi genocide was at its lethal peak. The Pen Confronts the Sword examines the shared motives behind four remarkable texts German exiles began writing that year: Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus (1947); Ernst Cassirer's The Myth of the State (1946); Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946); and Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944). Each identified a specific danger in Nazi ideology and mustered new theories, approaches, and sources to combat it. The books aimed to expose the encompassing catastrophes of German culture (Mann), politics (Cassirer), philology (Auerbach), and philosophy and sociology (Horkheimer and Adorno). Their scope, mastery, and sense of urgency constitute a comprehensive Kulturkampf (culture war) against Nazi barbarism. Avihu Zakai cogently analyzes each work, explains the context of its creation, and draws connections between these four landmark books in Western intellectual history.

Availability

The Pen Confronts the Sword is available as PDF at 9 online bookshops. Bookshops carrying it include Bajalibros Argentina, Bajalibros Latam, Bookshop Uruguay.

Language
English
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In what formats is The Pen Confronts the Sword available?
The Pen Confronts the Sword is available as PDF at 9 online bookshops.
Where can I buy The Pen Confronts the Sword?
You can buy The Pen Confronts the Sword at Bajalibros Argentina, Bajalibros Latam, Bookshop Uruguay. Compare every option in the list on this page.
How long does it take to read The Pen Confronts the Sword?
At an average reading pace, The Pen Confronts the Sword takes about 6 h 54 min to read (376 pages).

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