Aurel Kolnai’s The War Against the West Reconsidered

Description

Aurel Kolnai’s The War against the West remains one of the most insightful analyses of Nazi thought ever written. First published in 1938 it was a revelation for many readers. Quite different in tone and approach from most other analyses of Nazism available in English, it was remarkable for the thoroughness with which it discussed the writings of Nazi thinkers and for the seriousness with which it took their views. In this edited collection published eighty years after the original book, a team of distinguished scholars reassess this classic text and also consider its continued relevance to contemporary politics. They address issues such as the comparison of Nazism and communism, anti-Semitism, British and American perceptions of the Reich before the war and the Nazi legal theory of Carl Schmitt. This book is a vital source for historians of Nazism and Fascism. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Notes on Contributors List of Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction Kolnai’s The War Against the West: an attempt at contextualisation Disconcerting and perplexing remarks made by Kolnai Contemporary reviews of the book Overview References Part I: Topics addressed in Kolnai’s The War Against the West Chapter 2: Aurel Kolnai’s comparison of National Socialism and communism in the context of contemporary comparisons of dictatorships Introduction The War Against the West Between anti-Bolshevism and philo-Bolshevism Reasons for the higher esteem in which Bolshevism is held in The War Against the West Notes References Chapter 3: Nazism, Christianity and the development of political religion theory in Kolnai’s The War Against the West Nazism as political religion Nazism as religious politics Conclusion Notes References Chapter 4: Aurel Kolnai’s reflections on anti-Semitismin contemporary context Preliminary remarks Kolnai’s The War Against the West Dialectic of Enlightenment The War Against the West or Dialectic of Enlightenment? Notes References Part II: Comparing Kolnai with contemporary attempts of coming to terms with Nazism Chapter 5: Aurel Kolnai’s The War Against the West and British attempts to understand Nazism before the war The War Against the West in Britain British approaches Kolnai’s contribution Notes References Chapter 6: Aurel Kolnai’s The War Against the West and the American debate on Nazism The moral philosopher as political propagandist Relevance and resonance in the United States The American debate on Nazism up to 1938 The American reception of The War Against the West: Kolnai as Vansittartist Kolnai prefiguring United States wartime strategies and rhetoric Factors leading to the ‘false lullaby of appeasement’ Conclusion Notes References Chapter 7: Aurel Kolnai and Franz Neumann: Normative criticism and structural analysis of National Socialism Note References Part III: Kolnai’s work and the reception of The War Against the West Chapter 8: Aurel Kolnai’s The War Against the West contextualised In defence of Christian Europe Concrete conservatism Notes References Chapter 9: Aurel Kolnai’s The War Against the West: Contours of a contemporary analysis and critique of National Socialism National Socialism as a threat of annihilation against the West Analysis and criticism of National Socialist ideology National Socialism and race Kolnai’s analysis of National Socialism and the National Socialism of Germany: capitalism or socialism? National Socialism and war References Chapter 10: Nazi sexual politics: Aurel Kolnai on the threat of re-primitivism Background The core problem: vitalism Nazi sexual politics Re-primitivism Concluding remarks and contemporary significance Notes References Part IV: Kolnai’s political and moral philosophy Chapter 11: Aurel Kolnai’s War against Carl Schmitt’s War: The war of wars Schmitt in The War Against the West The concept of practice Practice and wars The dilemma A purely moral justification of war Morality as a two-edged weapon Resisting tyranny as the political justification for war Notes References Chapter 12: The viability of Kolnai’s moral phenomenology: Moral awareness and anti-Utopianism Recovering the ‘human world’ The utopian mentality Kolnai’s ethical phenomenology Nazi ideology and moral nihilism Moral awareness Meta-ethics Moral conflicts Conclusion Notes References Chapter 13: The War Against the West and Kolnai’s post-war moral and political philosophy Introduction The moral theory of The War Against the West The rejection of universality The amoralism of despair The heresy of moralism and the primacy of race The vitality and impatience of a youthful philosophy Conclusion: life gone mad Themes of Kolnai’s later moral and political works Introduction: commonalities and continuities The asymmetry of morality Life is not ‘made of morality’ The Aristotelian equivocation Right and Left: the utopias of ‘is’ and ‘ought’ Common men and plain men Abhorrence of personality in utopianism Interestingness as a mode of value experience Motion and straying Kolnai’s thought in the context of twentieth-century conservatism Introduction Sir Karl Popper Michael Oakeshott Conclusion Notes References Index