Non-Fiction

By Eric R. KandelWhen we view a work of art, we often experience an emotional response, but the causes of our reactions are complex. Our knowledge of why we respond to art as we do is rooted in science—in psychology and biology. Eric R. Kandel traces the origins of this understanding to early twentieth-century Vienna, which gave rise to the concept of the “beholder’s share,” the realization that art is incomplete without the perceptual and emotional involvement of the viewer—that is, without our responses to it.But what causes our response? Our brain is a creativity machine that brings to bear on any image—including a painting—certain innate, universal processes related to sensory perception as well as higher-order processes related to our personal experiences, memories, and emotions. Understanding how these unconscious processes in the brain interact to create the beholder’s share is one of the great challenges currently confronting brain science.The essays on art and science in this book vary widely in subject matter, including the angst-ridden portraits of Soutine, conflicting views of women’s sexuality, Cubism’s challenge to our innate visual processes, and why we react differently to abstract versus figurative art. But each essay focuses on the interaction of art and science. Woven throughout are the many notable scientists, art historians, artists, and others, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who contributed to our understanding of how we experience art.Paperback220 pagesColumbia University Press, 20255.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780231220859Science, Theory of Art

Essays on Art and Science

Original Price: $29.95 UP TO 20% ADDITIONAL SAVINGS FOR MEMBERS By Karolina Watroba This groundbreaking study of Franz Kafka’s legacy—to be published during the centenary of his death in 2024—explores Kafka’s life and influence in an entirely new and dynamic way. In 2024, exactly one hundred years after his death at the age of forty, readers all over the world will reach for the works of Franz Kafka. Many of them will want to learn more about the enigmatic man behind the classic books filled with mysterious courts and monstrous insects. Who, exactly, was Franz Kafka? Karolina Watroba, the first Germanist ever elected as a fellow of Oxford's All Souls College, will tell Kafka's story beyond the boundaries of language, time, and space, traveling from the Prague of Kafka's birth through the work of contemporary writers in East Asia, whose award-winning novels are, in part, homages to the great man himself. Metamorphoses presents a non-chronological journey through Kafka's life, combining literary scholarship with the responses of his readers throughout the last century. It is a both an exploration of Kafka's life and an exciting new way of approaching literary history. Hardcover254 pagesPegasus Books, 20246 x 1.1 x 9 inchesISBN 9781639366712Literary biography, literary history

Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka

By Daniel Brook "A well-informed life of a scientist worth remembering."—Kirkus Reviews "Jaunty… Brook succeeds in bringing his subject to fresh life, including a description of Hirschfeld’s world travels in 1930, which he undertook to lecture and research."—Casey Schwartz, Washington Post "You’ve probably never heard of Magnus Hirschfeld—and this is an injustice to a truly great man. Daniel Brook’s excellent biography. . . resurrects Dr. Hirschfeld’s status as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, whose insights into human nature can illuminate our turbulent times."—Deborah Mason, BookPage An illuminating portrait of a lost thinker, German-Jewish sexologist and activist Magnus Hirschfeld. More than a century ago, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, dubbed the “Einstein of Sex,” grew famous (and infamous) for his liberating theory of sexual relativity. Today, he’s been largely forgotten. Journalist Daniel Brook retraces Hirschfeld’s rollicking life and reinvigorates his legacy, recovering one of the great visionaries of the twentieth century. In an era when gay sex was a crime and gender roles rigid, Hirschfeld taught that each of us is their own unique mixture of masculinity and femininity. Through his public advocacy for gay rights and his private counseling of patients toward self-acceptance, he became the intellectual impresario of Berlin’s cabaret scene and helped turn his hometown into the world’s queer capital. But he also enraged the Nazis, who ransacked his Institute for Sexual Science and burned his books Driven from his homeland, Hirschfeld traveled to America, Asia, and the Middle East to research sexuality on a global scale. Through his harrowing lived experience of antisemitic persecution and a pivotal late-in-life interracial romance, he came to see that race, like gender, was a human invention. Hirschfeld spent his final years in exile trying to warn the world of the genocidal dangers of racism. Rich in passion and intellect, The Einstein of Sex at last brings together this unsung icon’s work on sexuality, gender, and race and recovers the visionary who first saw beyond the binaries. A century after his groundbreaking work—as the fights for personal freedom and societal acceptance rage on—Hirschfeld’s gift for thinking beyond the confines of his world has much to teach us. Hardcover320 pagesW. W. Norton, 20256.4 x 9.4 inchesISBN 9781324007241Biography, German History

The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin

By Gustav JanouchContribution by Francine Prose "This remarkable book, itself the result of a miraculous discovery of material believed lost, is one of the most exciting works—fiction, nonfiction, poetry—I remember having read." —Joyce Carol Oates, Partisan Review The value of Gustav Janouch’s Conversations with Kafka was immediately recognized when it was first published in America in 1953. Through a series of mishaps, however, the original text did not include several large and critical segments of the manuscript. The missing material, only recovered by chance, was integrated in 1971 into this revised and enlarged edition of Janouch’s extraordinary portrait of Kafka. “The living Kafka whom I knew,” the author writes in his post-script, “was far greater than the posthumously published books, which his friend Max Brod preserved from destruction. The Franz Kafka whom I used to visit and was allowed to accompany on his walks through Prague had such greatness and inner certainty that even today, at every turning point in my life, I can hold fast to the memory of his shade as if it were solidly cast in steel …. [He] is for me one of the last, and therefore perhaps one of the greatest, because closest to us, of mankind’s religious and ethical teachers.” Paperback228 pagesNew Directions, 20125.2 x 0.7 x 8 inchesISBN 9780811219501Biography, Literary Criticism

Conversations with Kafka

Edited by Bernadette Reinhold and Patrick Wekner The photographic estate of Oskar and Olda Kokoschka comprises approximately 5.000 photographs. It contains portraits by renowned photographers, including Madame d’Ora (Dora Kallmus), Hugo Erfurth, Brassaï, George Platt Lynes, René Burri, Trude Fleischmann or Erich Lessing. Apart from artistically composed images, the estate also features numerous press photographs and astonishing snapshots. With its extensive commentary, this first photo-biography of Kokoschka provides an insight into the artist’s many-faceted work and eventful life. The publication offers a vivid record of the evolution of photography and a historico-cultural journey through the 20th century as reflected by the mirror of this extraordinary artist. Paperback208 pages | 206 colored illustrationsText in English and GermanAmbra Verlag, 20139 x 0.75 x 11 inchesISBN 9783990435656 Monograph, Photographs

Oskar Kokoschka - ein Künstlerleben in Lichtbildern | Oskar Kokoschka - An Artist's Life in Photographs

By Henry Wiencek How the architect Stanford White and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens transcended scandal to enrich their times. Stanford White was a louche man-about-town and a canny cultural entrepreneur—the creator of landmark buildings that elevated American architecture to new heights. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the son of an immigrant shoemaker, a moody introvert, and a committed procrastinator whose painstaking work brought emotional depth to American sculpture. They met when Stan was walking down the street and heard Gus whistling Mozart in his studio. They pursued their own careers in Italy and France, then came together again in New York, where they maintained an intimate friendship and partnership that defined the art of the Gilded Age. Over the course of decades, White would help sustain his friend's troubled spirits and vouch for Saint-Gaudens when he failed to complete projects. Meanwhile, Saint-Gaudens would challenge White to take his artistic gifts seriously—and so it went amid brilliant commissions and sordid debaucheries all the way to White’s sensational murder by an enraged husband in 1906. In Stan and Gus, the acclaimed historian Henry Wiencek sets the two men’s relationship within the larger story of the American Renaissance, where millionaires’ commissions and delusions of grandeur collided with secret upper-class clubs, new aesthetic ideas, and two ambitious young men to yield work of lasting beauty. Hardcover320 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 20255.7 x 1.05 x 8.65 inchesISBN 9780374162498Biography, Art & Architecture

Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age

By Joseph Horowitz “Heroically researched . . . chock-full of fascinating vignettes, stunning quotations, and shrewd insights on the fly.” —New York Times A masterful study of how the Russian Revolution, the rise of European fascism and the second world war all transformed the American performing arts —The Economist National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Decades of war and revolution in Europe forced an "intellectual migration" during the last century, relocating thousands of artists and thinkers to the United States. For many of Europe's premier performing artists, America proved to be a destination both strange and opportune. Featuring the stories of George Balanchine, Kurt Weill, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and many others, Artists in Exile explores the impact that these famous newcomers had on American culture, and that America had on them. Paperback 480 pagesHarper Perennial, 20095 x 8 inchesISBN 9780060748500History

Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts

Edited with text by Nicholas Sawicki and Marie Rakušanová Preface by Zuzana Jürgens Text by Alexander Klee, Marek Nekula, and Miroslav Halak Journey through Kafka’s Prague and discover the art, architecture, media and performances that influenced the author’s oeuvre What did Franz Kafka see and do, whom did he meet and what did he read while roaming the streets of Prague? Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka brings the world of turn-of-the-century Czechoslovakia and its cultural milieu to life. The author’s home city was a heterogeneous and multilingual metropolis whose visual environment shaped his everyday experiences, from local painting and sculpture to architecture, monuments and popular visual media including advertisements, photography and cabaret. Kafka’s attention to the modern visual culture of his era was reflected in his writings and in his interest in drawing, a practice in which he received preliminary training and which he took up in his free time during his years as a university student. This illustrated publication immerses us in Kafka’s world; by following in his footsteps and looking through his eyes, we gain a new understanding of his thoughts, philosophies and inspirations. Hardcover224 pages | 231 color and 16 tri-tone IllustrationsKant, 20258.25 x 11.25 inchesISBN 9788074374265Exhibition Catalogue, Biography

Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka: Between Image and Language

By Else Lasker-SchülerTranslated and Introduction by Jean M. Snook Concert was one of the last books published by a Jew in Germany before Hitler came to power. The work is autobiographical, a collection of essays and vignettes that both entertain and engage the reader at a deeper level. Like Robert Schumann's piano suites, each in itself a perfect concert, Else Lasker-Schüler's Concert contains pieces that vary greatly in theme, mood, length, and complexity, yet they are unified by the medium and by the distinct and lyrical personality of the artist. Lasker-Schüler is able to transform and transcend the everyday scenery and events that are her points of departure. She makes magical an unmagical corner of Germany, discerns the miraculous in the neglected and ignored, and finds wisdom and comfort in prayer and cosmic perspective.Lasker-Schüler was attuned to the world and in some ways uncannily prophetic. It may come as a surprise to some readers that Concert, published in German in 1932, contains a warning about the climatic dangers of interfering 'with the merry green leaf people who give us ozone and the breath of life.' With her respect for the natural environment and her emphasis on spiritual development rather than the materialistic, Lasker-Schüler's voice remains relevant to our own times. A recent German edition of her complete works has proven immensely popular. Prior to the Third Reich, Lasker-Schüler had a well-established reputation in her native Germany as a poet, dramatist, and prose writer, as well as for her work in the visual arts, and she received the Kleist Prize for Literature. As a Jew, though, she was increasingly threatened by 'people wearing swastikas,' and was forced to flee the country in 1933, never to return. She died in exile in Palestine in 1945. This is the first English translation of any of Lasker-Schüler's prose: a challenging task because she includes sections in dialect, poems, numerous neologisms, witty alterations of German sayings, and structural emulations with phonetic echoes of famous German art songs. Hardcover164 pagesUniversity of Nebraska Press, 1994Originally published in 19325.78 x 7.92 inchesISBN 9780803229006Essays, Autobiographical Short Stories

Concert

By Lene Rock The first extensive comparison of the German-Jewish literary corpus and contemporary minority writing in German Since the turn of the 21st century, countless literary endeavors by ‘new Germans’ have entered the spotlight of academic research. Yet ‘minority writing’, with its distinctive renegotiation of traditional concepts of cultural identity, is far from a recent phenomenon in German literature. A hundred years previously, the intense involvement of German-Jewish intellectuals in cultural and political discourses on Jewish identity put a clear stamp on German modernism. This book is the first to unfold literary parallels between these two riveting periods in German cultural history. Drawing on the philosophical oeuvre of Jean-Luc Nancy, a comparative reading of texts by, amongst others, Beer-Hofmann, Kermani, Özdamar, Roth, Schnitzler, and Zaimoglu examines a variety of literary approaches to the thorny issue of cultural identity, while developing an overarching perspective on the ‘politics of literature’. Paperback370 pagesLeuven University Press, 20206.14 x 9.21 inchesISBN 9789462701786Literary Criticism

As German as Kafka: Identity and Singularity in German Literature around 1900 and 2000

By Wassily KandinskyIntroduction by Lisa FlormanTranslated by Ruth Ahmedzai KempNotes by Lisa Florman A treatise on the spiritual in contemporary painting to adopt new, metaphysical ways of conceiving of and creating art, by one of the most impactful and recognized artists of the twentieth century, in a new translation for the first time since publication A Penguin Classic In Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, one of the most famous abstract painters of all time, urges the reader to free themselves from art’s traditional bonds to material reality. In this radical theoretical work, he calls for a spiritual revolution in painting, arguing that artists, much like musicians, should be allowed to express their own inner lives in abstract, non-material terms. Investigating form and colour, spirituality and tradition, Kandinsky explores art’s resonance with the soul, its purpose and nature, and its power to inspire us, to stir our emotions and to help us see beyond the limits of our world. A significant contribution to the understanding of non-objectivism in art, this book serves as an important landmark in modern art history and is necessary reading for every artist and art-lover. Paperback192 pagesPenguin Classic, 20255.1 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9780241384800Philosophy, Art Theory

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

By Padraig Rooney "At last a biography in English of one of the most interesting women of the twentieth century! Schwarzenbach was so far ahead of her time that we are only now beginning to catch up to her. Little happened in the early decades of the twentieth century to which she didn't have a connection. What a life! And what a great way Padraig Rooney has told it." —Carlos Dews, editor of The Collected Works of Carson McCullers “An empathetic portrait of an audacious woman.” —Kirkus Reviews Annemarie Schwarzenbach was one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable women, possibly the greatest sexual and political radical of the 1930s. But until now she’s been largely ignored. Born to a wealthy family in Switzerland, as a teenager she rebelled against her domineering pro-Nazi mother. She immersed herself in the antifascist, queer and artistic circles of the German diaspora of the 1930s. Her edgy glamour and androgynous beauty turned heads in the lesbian nightclubs of Weimar Berlin, on the ski slopes of St. Moritz, and in New York's luxury hotels and jazz bars. Constantly on the move, Annemarie chronicled the low and dishonest decade leading to war through her unique journalism, writing and photography. Her work was as adventurous and uncompromising as her personal life, and reveals a deep courage, intelligence, and ambition tragically curtailed by her untimely death. Hardcover332 pagesPolity, 20256.3 x 1.4 x 9.1 inchesISBN 9781509566297Biography

Rebel Angel: The Life and Times of Annemarie Schwarzenbach

By Ludwig Wittgenstein Introduction by Jan Zwicky Translated by Alexander Booth One of the greatest philosophical works of all time, in a new translation for the twenty-first century Widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophical works of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is a succinct yet wide-ranging exploration of language and logic, science and mysticism, which has inspired generations of thinkers, artists and poets. In a series of short, bold statements, Wittgenstein seeks to define the limits of language, its relation to logic, its power and its inherent failings. Originally published in the early 1920s, it is the only book-length work the renowned philosopher published in his lifetime. In this thrilling new translation, Alexander Booth displays an extraordinary sensitivity to the subtle influence on Wittgenstein’s gem-like prose–at once specialist and, often, remarkably plain-spoken–considering his background in mechanical engineering, while highlighting the underlying poetry of this seminal text. Paperback 144 pages Penguin Classics, 2025 5.06 x 7.76 inches ISBN 9780241484173 Philosophy

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: The New Translation

By Hannah ArendtEdited by Jerome Kohn and Thomas Wild A deluxe expanded edition of the masterpiece of political philosophy that transformed how the world thinks about fascism and authoritarianism Includes two fascinating chapters that were later cut and are available in no other edition In 1951, a monumental book by a relatively unknown German-Jewish émigré addressed the terrifying new mode of political organization underlying the twin horrors of Stalinism and Nazism. Herself a refugee from Nazi persecution, Hannah Arendt sought, from her exile in New York City, to answer the unfathomable questions raised by the Soviet gulag and the Holocaust: How could there be such barbarism in the midst of civilization? How had governments exerted such absolute control over citizens, terrorizing them and enlisting them to commit atrocities on their behalf? Arendt’s historical and cultural analyses extend to a thorough examination of nineteenth-century antisemitism in Europe, including a trenchant account of the Dreyfus Affair in France and brilliant insights into imperialism, racism, and their role in totalitarianism’s rise in the 1920s and 1930s. Arendt contends that totalitarianism, as a political system, is now embedded in contemporary life and is, as she would later remark, “the central event of our world.” Her clear-eyed warning that totalitarianism is not merely a historical episode but is rather a permanent feature of modernity and beyond—a danger never to be fully eradicated, and a continual temptation for anti-democratic demagogues—makes Arendt, a half-century after her death, a preeminent thinker and political philosopher for the twenty-first century. The Library of America edition of this indispensable and influential work, based on the final version she revised in her lifetime, also restores to print Arendt’s “Concluding Remarks” to the 1951 first American edition and a chapter on the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolt of 1956, both of which were cut from later editions. The first annotated edition of Origins, the volume contains concise and thorough glosses on Arendt’s many historical and cultural references, and its Chronology provides a detailed portrait of her remarkable life. Hardcover900 pagesLibrary of America, 20254.8 x 7.8 inchesISBN 9781598538069Political Theory, Philosophy

Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism Expanded Edition

By Larry Wolff "[A] masterful intellectual history of the province."—Timothy Snyder, New York Review of Books "Wolff's way of telling the story of how the idea of Galicia evolved throughout the nineteenth century is a dense narrative in which a variety of sources are related or juxtaposed to create multiple contexts—historical, political, social, intellectual, cultural. . . The scope and quality of Larry Wolff's scholarship makes The Idea of Galicia an impressive achievement. Not only has the author made a major contribution to the history of Galicia and to historiography, but he has also set a high standard for historical writing."—Jolanta Pekacz, Canadian Journal of History Galicia was created at the first partition of Poland in 1772 and disappeared in 1918. Yet, in slightly over a century, the idea of Galicia came to have meaning for both the peoples who lived there and the Habsburg government that ruled it. Indeed, its memory continues to exercise a powerful fascination for those who live in its former territories and for the descendants of those who emigrated out of Galicia. The idea of Galicia was largely produced by the cultures of two cities, Lviv and Cracow. Making use of travelers' accounts, newspaper reports, and literary works, Wolff engages such figures as Emperor Joseph II, Metternich, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Ivan Franko, Stanisław Wyspiański, Tadeusz "Boy" Żeleński, Isaac Babel, Martin Buber, and Bruno Schulz. He shows the exceptional importance of provincial space as a site for the evolution of cultural meanings and identities, and analyzes the province as the framework for non-national and multi-national understandings of empire in European history. Paperback 504 pagesStanford University Press; 1st edition, 20126 x 1.25 x 9 inchesISBN 9780804783125European History

The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture

by Fodor's Travel Guides “Fodor’s is pitched a few notches higher…aimed at a fairly discerning traveler with an appetite for background and the occasional surprise.” –New York Times “The Fodor’s guides are notable for their ratings of sights, restaurants, shops, accommodations and attractions.” –Chicago Tribune “In terms of comprehensiveness of coverage, the very accessible format, and the enthusiastic tone, this series remains one of the best on the market.” –Booklist Whether you want to explore Vienna's elegant palaces and concert halls, ski the Austrian Alps, or soak in the charms of Salzburg's classical music scene, the local Fodor's travel experts in Vienna are here to help! Fodor's Vienna & the Best of Austria guidebook is packed with maps, carefully curated recommendations, and everything else you need to simplify your trip-planning process and make the most of your time. This new edition has been fully-redesigned with an easy-to-read layout, fresh information, and beautiful color photos. Fodor's Vienna & the Best of Austria travel guide includes: AN ILLUSTRATED ULTIMATE EXPERIENCES GUIDE to the top things to see and doMULTIPLE ITINERARIES to effectively organize your days and maximize your timeMORE THAN 15 DETAILED MAPS to help you navigate confidentlyCOLOR PHOTOS throughout to spark your wanderlust!HONEST RECOMMENDATIONS FROM LOCALS on the best sights, restaurants, hotels, nightlife, shopping, performing arts, activities, side-trips, and morePHOTO-FILLED “BEST OF” FEATURES on “Best Museums in Vienna” and “Vienna Under the Radar,” "What to Buy in Vienna," and moreTRIP-PLANNING TOOLS AND PRACTICAL TIPS including when to go, getting around, beating the crowds, and saving time and moneyHISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS providing rich context on the local people, politics, art, architecture, cuisine, music, geography and moreSPECIAL FEATURES on “What to Watch and Read Before You Visit,” "Mozart," and “What to Eat and Drink”LOCAL WRITERS to help you find the under-the-radar gemsGERMAN-LANGUAGE PRIMER with useful words and essential phrasesUP-TO-DATE COVERAGE ON: Vienna, Kunshistorisches Museum, Stephensdom, Schönbrunn Palace, The Hofburg, Belvedere Palace, the Hotel Sacher, the Vienna Woods, the Danube Valley, Salzburg, Graz, Innsbruck, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Bratislava, and more. Paperback384 pagesFodor's Travel, 2024Originally published in 20135.25 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9781640976764 Travel Guide, Vienna

Fodor's Vienna & the Best of Austria: With Salzburg & Skiing in the Alps (Full-color Travel Guide)

Von Elisabeth Sandmann Ein großes Kunst-Drama - die präzise recherchierte und emotional fesselnde Geschichte hinter Klimts »Goldenen Adele« Mitten im Ersten Weltkrieg wird Maria Altmann in Wien in eine wohlhabende jüdische Familie hineingeboren. Ihre früh verstorbene Tante, Adele Bloch-Bauer, geht bei dem Maler Gustav Klimt ein und aus, der 1907 ihr Porträt, das berühmte Bildnis der Goldenen Adele fertigstellt. Mit dem Einmarsch der Nazis wird der gesamte Besitz geraubt und den Bloch-Bauers bleibt von der einstmals großen Kunstsammlung buchstäblich nichts. Als sich die Erben nach 1945 um eine Rückgabe bemühen, sehen sie sich konfrontiert mit Lügen und Intrigen, die sie in ihrem vollen Ausmaß erst 50 Jahre später erkennen. Jetzt beschließt Maria Altmann mit fast 84 Jahren, den Staat Österreich von den USA aus zu verklagen und es beginnt ein transatlantischer Rechtsstreit, der einem Krimi gleicht. Gemeinsam mit dem jungen Anwalt Randol Schoenberg wird sie bis an das Höchstgericht der USA gehen und am Ende siegen. Hardcover128 pagesText in GermanSandmann, Elisabeth (Erweiterte und aktualisierte Neuausgabe edition), October 202414.1 x 1.4 x 21.6 cmISBN 9783949582387Provenance, Art History, Law

Der gestohlene Klimt

By Walter Benjamin Benjamin’s early attempt to understand a nascent technology, remarkably prescient and topical even today. “The illiterate of the future … will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.” So declared Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) in his essay A Little History of Photography, originally published in the periodical Literarische Welt in 1931. Beginning with the early experiments of Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce and concluding with the work of August Sander and Germaine Krull, Benjamin moved beyond the medium itself to address the artistic, societal and political capabilities that photography foretold. A Little History of Photography contains the inklings of his thoughts on “reproducibility” that he would later flesh out in his best-known text, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Benjamin’s view of photography gave early credence to the medium and its practitioners and shaped the methodology by which it can be analyzed. Paperback48 pages | 13 black-and-white illustrationsWalther König, 2025Originally published in 19314.5 x 7.25 inchesISBN 9783753304014Theory, Photography

A Little History of Photography

By Elyse Graham “A fascinating new study. . . Book and Dagger tells the story of four such recruits—and surveys many others—with an almost breathless sense of wartime romance and drama. It makes for entertaining, atmospheric reading.” — Wall Street Journal The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts. In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, letters, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned spies. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to secretly acquire documents for the OSS. These unforgettable characters would ultimately help lay the foundations of modern intelligence and transform American higher education when they returned after the war. Thrillingly paced and rigorously researched, Book and Dagger is an inspiring and gripping true story about a group of academics who helped beat the Nazis—a tale that reveals the indelible power of the humanities to change the world. Hardcover400 pagesEcco, 20246 x 1.15 x 9 inchesISBN 9780063280847History, World War II

Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II

By Anne Nelson One of the untold stories of the Holocaust—the nail-biting drama of Suzanne Spaak, who risked and gave her life to save hundreds of Jewish children from deportation from Nazi Paris to Auschwitz “vividly dramatizes the stakes of acting morally in a time of brutality.” —The Wall Street Journal Suzanne Spaak was born into the Belgian Catholic elite and married into the country’s leading political family. Her brother-in-law was the Foreign Minister and her husband Claude was a playwright and patron of the painter Renée Magritte. In Paris in the late 1930s her friendship with a Polish Jewish refugee led her to her life’s purpose. When France fell and the Nazis occupied Paris, she joined the Resistance. She used her fortune and social status to enlist allies among wealthy Parisians and church groups. Then, under the eyes of the Gestapo, Suzanne and women from the Jewish and Christian resistance groups “kidnapped” hundreds of Jewish children to save them from the gas chambers. Suzanne’s Children is the “dogged…page-turning account” (Kirkus Reviews) of this incredible story of courage in the face of evil. “Anne Nelson is superb at showing the upheavals in Europe since WWI through vivid, illuminating details…and she also masterfully describes the incremental changes in the Jews’ plight under the Occupation” (Booklist). It was during the final year of the Occupation when Suzanne was caught in the Gestapo dragnet that was pursuing a Soviet agent she had aided. She was executed shortly before the liberation of Paris. Paperback336 pagesSimon & Schuster, 20185.5 x 1 x 8.38 inchesISBN 9781501105333History, World War II

Suzanne's Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris

By Benjamin Carter Hett “[World War II's] proximate origins are the subject of Benjamin Carter Hett’s fast-moving, absorbing and aptly titled The Nazi Menace…Thanks to the author’s knack for the capsule biography, we gain fascinating insights into less obvious figures, among them Hugh Dowding, an eccentric and canny architect of Britain’s air defense network; Ernst von Weizsäcker, a senior German diplomat torn between his opposition to a general war and his support for German expansion; and Dorothy Thompson, the ferociously anti-Nazi American columnist and radio broadcaster.” ­­―The New York Times Book Review A panoramic narrative of the years leading up to the Second World War―a tale of democratic crisis, racial conflict, and a belated recognition of evil, with profound resonance for our own time. Berlin, November 1937. Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in eastern Europe. Some generals are unnerved by the Führer’s grandiose plan, but these dissenters are silenced one by one, setting in motion events that will culminate in the most calamitous war in history. Benjamin Carter Hett takes us behind the scenes in Berlin, London, Moscow, and Washington, revealing the unsettled politics within each country in the wake of the German dictator’s growing provocations. He reveals the fitful path by which anti-Nazi forces inside and outside Germany came to understand Hitler’s true menace to European civilization and learned to oppose him, painting a sweeping portrait of governments under siege, as larger-than-life figures struggled to turn events to their advantage. Paperback416 pagesSt. Martin’s Griffin, 20215.99 x 0.96 x 8.99 inchesISBN 9781250798763German History, World War II

The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War

By Benjamin Carter Hett "At a time of deep distress over the stability of democracy in America and elsewhere, Benjamin Carter Hett's chronicle of the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Adolf Hitler could not be more timely. 'The Death of Democracy' makes for chilling reading." —Roger Lowenstein, The Washington Post “[An] extremely fine study of the end of constitutional rule in Germany. . . . With careful prose and fine scholarship, with fine thumbnail sketches of individuals and concise discussions of institutions and economics, . . . [Benjamin Carter Hett] sensitively describes a moral crisis that preceded a moral catastrophe.” —Timothy Snyder, The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice) A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen. Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. He would never have come to power if Germany's leading politicians had not responded to a spate of populist insurgencies by trying to co-opt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler's hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship. Paperback320 pagesHolt Paperbacks, 20195.35 x 0.85 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9781250210869History, Weimar Republic

The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic

By Josephine BakerForeword by Ijeoma OluoTranslated by Anam Zafar and Sophie Lewis “A gorgeous, captivating gem of a memoir… Josephine Baker’s as enthralling on the page as she was on the stage.” —Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author of Eden Undone and Sin in the Second City After stealing the spotlight as a teenaged Broadway performer during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine then took Paris by storm, dazzling audiences across the Roaring Twenties. In her famous banana skirt, she enraptured royalty and countless fans—Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso among them. She strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah wearing a diamond collar. With her signature flapper bob and enthralling dance moves, she was one of the most recognizable women in the world. When World War II broke out, Josephine became a decorated spy for the French Résistance. Her celebrity worked as her cover, as she hid spies in her entourage and secret messages in her costumes as she traveled. She later joined the Civil Rights movement in the US, boycotting segregated concert venues, and speaking at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr. First published in France in 1949, her memoir will now finally be published in English. At last we can hear Josephine in her own voice: charming, passionate, and brave. Her words are thrilling and intimate, like she’s talking with her friends over after-show drinks in her dressing room. Through her own telling, we come to know a woman who danced to the top of the world and left her unforgettable mark on it. Hardcover304 pagesTiny Reparations Books, 2025Originally published in 19495.8 x 1 x 8.54 inchesISBN 9780593853696Memoir, Josephine Baker

Fearless and Free: A Memoir

By Stephen Parker This first English language biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) in two decades paints a strikingly new picture of one of the twentieth century's most controversial cultural icons. First published in 2014 and now available in paperback, it was critically lauded and declared the definitive life of this great artist and writer. Drawing on letters, diaries and unpublished material, including Brecht's medical records, Parker offers a rich and enthralling account of Brecht's life and work, viewed through the prism of the artist. Tracing his extraordinary life, from his formative years in Augsburg, through the First World War, his politicization during the Weimar Republic and his years of exile, up to the Berliner Ensemble's dazzling productions in Paris and London, Parker shows how Brecht achieved his transformative effect upon world theatre and poetry. Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life is a powerful portrait of a great, compulsively contradictory personality, whose artistry left its lasting imprint on modern culture. Paperback704 pagesMethuen Drama, 20156.14 x 1.44 x 9.21 inchesISBN 9781474240000Biography, Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life

By Dr. MisesIntroduction and translation by Erik Butler A compilation of 16 rigorous, eccentric essays commissioned by the German founder of psychophysics The original 1824 German publication of Stapelia Mixta united a bevy of eccentric proposals, meditations and displays of consciously excessive learning that strove for an unusual clarity of absurdity, which was the hallmark of the pseudonymous author Dr. Mises. Aiming for a broader reading audience, it was titled after a flower, but one of such a stench as to guarantee originality. And such was the originality of these semiserious flights of excess that came under the cover of Dr. Mises, who wrote on everything from landscaping to the spiritual lives of plants and heavenly bodies while also conducting pioneering research in optics and experimental psychology.The 16 essays of this collection include discussions of dancing, drugs, immortality, perception and psychology. These increasingly inventive essays start with a relatively digestible “Encomium of the Belly” before developing into a complicated, prepataphysical exploration of Spatial Symbolism. Paperback152 pages | 11 black-and-white illustrationsWakefield Press, 20245.25 x 8 inchesISBN 9781962728010 Essays

Stapelia Mixta

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Introduction and Photography by Gordon L. Miller Goethe’s influential text, newly illustrated with stunning color photographs. The Metamorphosis of Plants, published in 1790, was Goethe’s first major attempt to describe what he called in a letter to a friend “the truth about the how of the organism.” Inspired by the diversity of flora he found on a journey to Italy, Goethe sought a unity of form in diverse structures. He came to see in the leaf the germ of a plant’s metamorphosis—“the true Proteus who can hide or reveal himself in all vegetal forms”—from the root and stem leaves to the calyx and corolla, to pistil and stamens. With this short book—123 numbered paragraphs, in the manner of the great botanist Linnaeus—Goethe aimed to tell the story of botanical forms in process, to present, in effect, a motion picture of the metamorphosis of plants. This MIT Press edition of The Metamorphosis of Plants illustrates Goethe’s text (in an English translation by Douglas Miller) with a series of stunning and starkly beautiful color photographs as well as numerous line drawings. It is the most completely and colorfully illustrated edition of Goethe’s book ever published. It demonstrates vividly Goethe’s ideas of transformation and interdependence, as well as the systematic use of imagination in scientific research—which influenced thinkers ranging from Darwin to Thoreau and has much to teach us today about our relationship with nature. Paperback156 pagesRandom House, 2024Originally published in 17906 x 8 inchesISBN 9780262551021Theory, Photography

The Metamorphosis of Plants

By Richard Cockett“A rich and fascinating book. Pre-war Vienna was a cauldron of ideas—ideas that were mostly extinguished in Austria, but exported to the Anglo-American world. Richard Cockett makes a compelling case for how they continue to shape our lives.”—David Edmonds, author of The Murder of Professor SchlickHow can one European capital be responsible for most of the West’s intellectual and cultural achievements in the twentieth century?Viennese ideas saturate the modern world. From California architecture to Hollywood Westerns, modern advertising to shopping malls, orgasms to gender confirmation surgery, nuclear fission to fitted kitchens—every aspect of our history, science, and culture is in some way shaped by Vienna.The city of Freud, Wittgenstein, Mahler, and Klimt was the melting pot at the heart of a vast metropolitan empire. But with the Second World War and the rise of fascism, the dazzling coteries of thinkers who squabbled, debated, and called Vienna home dispersed across the world, where their ideas continued to have profound impact.Richard Cockett gives us the entirety of this extraordinary story. Tracing Vienna’s rich intellectual history from psychoanalysis to Reaganomics, Cockett encompasses everything from the communist rebels of Red Vienna to the neoliberal economists of the Austrian School. This is the panoramic account of how one city made the modern world—and how we all remain inescapably Viennese.Paperback464 pages | 25 black-and-white illustrationsYale University Press, 20245.11 x 1.17 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9780300279368Viennese History, Austria

Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World [Paperback]

By Jostein Gaarder Translated by Paulette Møller “This book contains a novel mantra for those days when the world gets in your face.”—Entertainment Weekly“A whimsical and ingenious mystery novel that also happens to be a history of philosophy.”—Alexander Theroux, The Washington Post Book World“First, think a beginner's guide to philosophy . . . Next, imagine a fantasy novel—something like a modern-day version of Through the Looking Glass. Meld these disparate genres, and what do you get? Well, what you get is an improbable international bestseller . . . [A] tour de force.”—John Elson, Time A brand-new 30th anniversary edition of the wildly popular (over fifty million copies in print!), page-turning novel about a young girl’s exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought. Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World is an exciting coming-of-age novel that thrives on its contradictions. It is a page-turning science fiction adventure as well as a history of Western philosophy—from the discourses of ancient Greece to debates about the Big Bang. The games begin when fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen finds two notes in her mailbox. One note asks, “Who are you?” The other asks, “Where does the world come from?” From here, with the aid of a devoted but mysterious instructor, Sophie sets off on a fantastic philosophical saga that will take her far beyond her small Norwegian hometown. Letters give way to lectures, questions give way to quests, and the dimensions of Sophie’s world (as well as our own) grow ever wider, deeper, and richer. Paperback544 pagesPicador, 2024Originally published in 19915.91 x 8.27 inchesISBN 9781250860491Philosophy, Theory

Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy

By Sigmund Freud Freud was fascinated by the mysteries of creativity and the imagination. The groundbreaking works that comprise The Uncanny present some of his most influential explorations of the mind. In these pieces Freud investigates the vivid but seemingly trivial childhood memories that often “screen” deeply uncomfortable desires; the links between literature and daydreaming; and our intensely mixed feelings about things we experience as “uncanny.” Also included is Freud’s celebrated study of Leonardo Da Vinci-his first exercise in psychobiography. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Paperback240 pagesPenguin Classics, 20035.1 x 0.65 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9780142437476Psychology, History

The Uncanny

By Luisa Weiss A collection of more than 100 of the best, most emblematic recipes of German and Austrian home cooks, from the author of Classic German Baking. To many, German food is humble comfort food, the kind of food that may not win a beauty award, but more than makes up for it with its power to soothe, nourish and cheer. In Classic German Cooking, Luisa Weiss—who was born in Berlin to an Italian mother and American father, and married into a family with roots in Saxony—has collected and mastered the essential everyday recipes of Germany and Austria. Classic German Cooking features traditional and time-honored recipes that are beloved in homes across the region, such as Rinderrouladen (Braised Beef Rolls), Quarkauflauf (Fresh Cheese Soufflé), Hühnerfrikassee (Chicken Fricassee) and authentic Viennese Gulasch or Alpine Germknödel (Plum Butter-Stuffed Steamed Dumplings). Cozy Apfelküchle (Apple Fritters) bring warmth to an afternoon snack, while tangy Spargelsalat (White Asparagus Salad) signals the sweet start of Spring. Luisa gives history and context to the cooking of Germany and its influences worldwide. Sprinkled with both personal stories and historical insights, Classic German Cooking will leave you with a well-rounded understanding of the cuisine and its lasting influence. Hardcover272 pagesRandom House, Inc., 20248.27 x 1.06 x 10.28 inchesISBN 9781984861887 Cookbook

Classic German Cooking

By Richard Schacht “Schacht’s long-standing and important thesis concerning Nietzsche’s naturalism is brought to fruition in this book. Nietzsche Pursued offers an invaluable, enriching, and superbly argued sequence of engagements with this extremely important thinker. This is an outstanding and original contribution to the field of Nietzsche studies by one of its most notable scholars.”—Peter R. Sedgwick, Cardiff University “The future of humanity is Nietzsche’s central concern. Nietzsche Pursued addresses current debates in innovative and inspiring ways, proposing nuanced solutions beyond established dichotomies such as moralism versus nihilism, essentialism versus perspectivism, and naturalism versus humanism. Schacht’s artful way of making sense of Nietzsche draws on a life’s work of exceptional scholarship and walks a virtuous tightrope between false alternatives.” —Helmut Heit, director of the Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche, Weimar An ambitious venture into Nietzsche’s envisioned philosophy for the future. Nietzsche advocated for a post-theistic “philosophy of the future”—a new approach to human reality that would bend Western thought away from nihilism in a life-affirming, value-creative direction. His early demise left this endeavor only just begun. In Nietzsche Pursued, Richard Schacht examines Nietzsche’s revisionist approach to familiar philosophical topics, exploring how some may be further pursued in Nietzschean ways. Each chapter focuses on one topic that is central to Nietzsche’s vision of what philosophy can and should be and do. Among them: his kind of naturalism, humanity, perspectivism, morality, and music. Building on his analysis in Nietzsche’s Kind of Philosophy, Schacht invites readers to see with new appreciation the ongoing significance of Nietzsche’s thought for philosophy’s future. Hardcover376 pagesUniversity of Chicago Press, 20246 x 9 inchesISBN 9780226834665 Modern Western Philosophy, Ethics and Morality

Nietzsche Pursued: Toward a Philosophy for the Future

By Alessandra Comini ''This erudite, mostly engaging self-portrait charts the making of an art historian and professional 'seer,' whose passion and wit enabled her to become a noted teacher and scholar at Southern Methodist University. Comini helped unearth centuries of overlooked women in art and wrote landmark studies of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele and of musical iconography. For someone engaged in a life of the mind, she has lived much of it in motion, and the art of travel and close consideration of cultural context have been her keys to learning and teaching. She is at her riveting best when she reveals her discoveries about Schiele in his Vienna prison cell, Winckelmann in Rome and Trieste, the composer Edvard Grieg in Norway, and the painter Akseli Gallen-Kalella in Finland. Her short essays dazzle the most when they reveal her keen eye, such as when she discerns how the German artist Kathe Kollwitz, in a bust of herself, 'used the resolute features of her own aging face as a spiritual topography for courage and resignation.''' --Booklist Overflowing with passion for her work as a scholar and teacher, Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini reminisces through six decades as an unconventional art historian in this illustrated memoir. The author of award-winning books on Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Ludwig van Beethoven, Comini draws on her sixty years of daily journals, sharing research-related anecdotes as she reflects on the formation and flowering of her distinguished career. Beginning with her colorful background as a refugee from Franco's Spain, then Mussolini's Italy, she describes her music-loving family's sometimes humorous, sometimes painful adjustment to a World War II Texas. A series of fortuitous experiences at Interlochen's National Music Camp, Barnard College, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University later leads to what would ultimately be a turning point in her life as well as in Schiele scholarship. She discovered the actual cell in which Schiele had been imprisoned in a provincial Austrian jail half a century earlier. Comini invites readers to join her in the same zestful and persistent pursuit of cultural history that has repeatedly earned her the honor of being voted "outstanding" professor, by her students at Columbia University and later at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Her research and quests take the reader around the world and back. From the islands of Corfu, Madeira, R gen, and Tahiti to the cities of Lisbon, Rome, Oslo, and St. Petersburg, Comini pursues such diverse and distinctive personalities as Rosa Bonheur, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Pablo Picasso, Eleonora Duse, Edvard Munch, K the Kollwitz, Vaslav Nijinski, and Egon Schiele. Alessandra Comini's memoir will inspire readers with its sincere and compelling account of an extraordinary life and career still passionately in progress. Retirement for her has meant discovering a joyful new profession: writing art history murder mystery novels that take her eighty-year-old pseudonymous heroine Megan Crespi from the top of Europe down to Antarctica in pursuit of murderous purloiners of artworks by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Munch, and Kollwitz. Paperback242 pagesSunstone Press, 20166 x 0.55 x 9 inchesISBN 9781632931405History

In Passionate Pursuit

By Luisa Weiss “If you’re fascinated by German baking, by the recipes for kuchen, cakes, tortes, cookies, and yeasted sweets passed down through generations, then you’ll be as joyful as I am that Luisa Weiss has given us this beautifully written and photographed book. Here, at last, is our portal to learning more about the long tradition of German baking, which has influenced bakers around the world, and to recreating such wonders at home. Classic German Baking is a sweet adventure.” —Dorie Greenspan, author of Dorie’s Cookies and the New York Times best-selling Baking Chez Moi “Even if you don’t have the stamina for homemade apple strudel or Black Forest cake, this Berlin-born food blogger will win you over with her sandy almond sugar cookies.”—The New York Times From her cheerful Berlin kitchen, Luisa Weiss shares more than 100 rigorously researched and tested recipes, gathered from expert bakers, friends, family, and time-honored sources throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. German baking has influenced baking traditions around the world for generations and is a source of great nostalgia for those of German and Central European heritage. Yet the very best recipes for Germany’s cookies, cakes, tortes, and breads, passed down through generations, have never before been collected and perfected for contemporary American home bakers. Enter Luisa Weiss, the Berlin-based creator of the adored Wednesday Chef blog and self-taught ambassador of the German baking canon. Whether you’re in the mood for the simple yet emblematic Streuselkuchen, crisp and flaky Strudel, or classic breakfast Brötchen, every recipe you’re looking for is here, along with detailed advice to ensure success plus delightful storytelling about the origins, meaning, and rituals behind the recipes. Paired with more than 100 photographs of Berlin and delectable baked goods, such as Elisenlebkuchen, Marmorierter Mohnkuchen, and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, this book will encourage home bakers of all skill levels to delve into the charm of Germany’s rich baking tradition. Classic German Baking is an authoritative collection of recipes that provides delicious inspiration for any time of day, whether it’s for a special breakfast, a celebration with friends and family, or just a regular afternoon coffee-and-cake break, an important part of everyday German life. Hardcover288 pagesTen Speed Press, 20168.24 x 1.12 x 10.1 inchesISBN 9781607748250 German Cookbook

Classic German Baking: The Very Best Recipes for Traditional Favorites, from Pfeffernüsse to Streuselkuchen

By Walter Benjamin Introduction by Stanley Mitchell Translated by Anna Bostock "A small bomb of ideas and vital argument."—Guardian"He does not abolish the distance between us and Leskov, or Brecht, or Kafka; he brings it to life."—Times Higher Education Supplement"If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second."—The Listener A collection of essays of political philosophy by the renowned mid 20th-century critical theorist and literary critic The relationship between philosopher-critic Walter Benjamin and playwright-poet Bertolt Brecht was both a lasting friendship and a powerful intellectual partnership. Having met in the late 1920s in Germany, Benjamin and Brecht, both independently minded Marxists with a deep understanding of and passionate commitment to the emancipatory potential of cultural practices, continued to discuss, argue and correspond on topics as varied as Fascism and the work of Franz Kafka. Faced by the onset of the ‘midnight of the century’, with the Nazi subversion of the Weimar Republic in Germany and the Stalinist degeneration of the revolution in Russia, both men, in their own way, strove to keep alive the tradition of dialectical critique of the existing order and radical intervention in the world to transform it. In Understanding Brecht we find collected together Benjamin’s most sensitive and probing writing on the dramatic and poetic work of his friend and tutor. Stimulated by Brecht’s oeuvre and theorising his particular dramatic techniques—such as the famous ‘estrangement effect’—Benjamin developed his own ideas about the role of art and the artist in crisis-ridden society. This volume contains Benjamin’s introductions to Brecht’s theory or epic theatre and close textual analyses of twelve poems by Brecht (printed in translation here) which exemplify Benjamin’s insistence that literary form and content are indivisible. Elsewhere Benjamin discusses the plays The Mother, Terror and Misery of the Third Reich, and The Threepenny Opera, digressing for some general remarks on Marx and satire. Here we also find Benjamin’s masterful essay “The Author as Producer” as well as an extract from his diaries that records the intense conversations held in the late 1930s in Denmark (Brecht’s place of exile) between the two most important cultural theorists of this century. In these discussions, the two men talked of subjects as diverse as the work of Franz Kafka, the unfolding Soviet Trials, and the problems of literary work on the edge of international war. Paperback144 pagesVerso, 20245.5 x 7.8 inchesISBN 9781804294796Literary Criticism, Theory and Aesthetics

Understanding Brecht

By Gillian Rose Edited by Robert Lucas Scott and James Gordon Finlayson “To read these lectures is to watch a great mind at work. Animated by her discovery of an incisive and socially relevant left-wing intellectual tradition, Rose approaches teaching by conveying that excitement – precisely the philosophical eros she would later extol. For readers familiar with Rose’s rigorous and sometimes forbidding books, these lectures reveal an unexpected, intimate pedagogical side. Alongside her unique and pioneering reception of the Frankfurt School, we can see Rose’s own singular contributions to political thought – her meditations on law, violence, the relationship between aesthetic imagination and social order – begin to find their grounds in her readings of, and arguments with, her predecessors.”—James Butler“This is the best starting place for a new generation of Rose-readers, a reminder of where it all began, when modernists could still be Marxists and theologians belonged to a previous age. A treat for the Roserati.”—Peter Osborne, Director, Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London, author of Crisis as FormLectures on art, Marxism, and critical theory by the legendary philosopher, collected for the first time, with an afterword by Martin Jay Marxist Modernism is a comprehensive yet concise and conversational introduction to the Frankfurt School. It is also a new resource from one of the twentieth century’s most important philosophers: Gillian Rose. Her 1979 lectures on the Frankfurt School explore the lives and philosophies of a range of the school’s members and affiliates, including Adorno, Lukács, Brecht, Bloch, Benjamin, and Horkheimer, and outline the way each theorist developed Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism into a Marxist theory of culture. Paperback176 pagesVerso, 20245.5 x 8.25 inchesISBN 9781804290118Philosophy, Politics

Marxist Modernism: Introductory Lectures on Frankfurt School Critical Theory

By Christophe Koné“Uncanny Creatures contributes a new and novel theory of dolls and their relationship to the concept of the uncanny. It also contributes to the ongoing/emerging scholarship on gender and queer studies to the fields of German studies and art history.” —Nathan Timpano, University of Miami Germany held a monopoly on the manufacture and export of bisque toy dolls in Europe before WWI. Yet, dolls’ omnipresence in the material, visual, and literary culture of the modern German-speaking world has so far not been properly addressed. In demonstrating this cultural affinity for dolls, Christophe Koné draws upon a range of stories and seminal essays on dolls, as well as toys, sculptures, paintings, and photographs. He examines how E.T.A. Hoffmann’s romantic tale The Sandman (1815) has been a major source of inspiration for German-speaking doll makers because of how it centers imagination and inventiveness. Using Hoffmann’s tale as an early example of an amalgam between doll thinking and making in German culture, Koné shows how it initiated a genealogy of doll thinkers (Freud & Jentsch), writers (Rilke), painters (Kokoschka), photographers (Bellmer), and makers (Pritzel). Uncanny Creatures then explores how this unusual interest in human-like figures continues a long tradition of thought devoted to conceptualizing “things,” from Immanuel Kant’s theory of the thing-in-itself to Martin Heidegger’s lecture on the thing, and Eduard Mörike or Rainer Maria Rilke’s thing-poems. Because dolls occupy a liminal space—not quite things and more than mere objects—they appear as uncanny creatures which have held a fascination for writers, thinkers, and artists alike. Uncanny Creatures moves past the Freudian discourse of fetishism to propose a new reading of doll artifacts in German culture centered on their ability to evoke a feeling of uncertainty and unsettlement in the viewer. Paperback184 pagesUniversity of Michigan Press, 20246 x 0.6 x 9 inchesISBN 9780472039739 German History & Theory

Uncanny Creatures: Doll Thinking in Modern German Culture

Edited by Lisa Marei Schmidt, Sabine Maria Schmidt, and Florence Thurmes Eine Aufständische für die Moderne. A Rebel for Modern Art Art collector, patron and arbiter – Hanna Bekker vom Rath (1893–1983) was a trailblazer for the artistic avant-garde and one of the most important female personalities in Germany during the pre-war and post-war modern periods. She was a friend of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Alexej von Jawlensky, Ida Kerkorius and Paul Klee. This lavishly illustrated volume provides a lively picture of a remarkable woman. A refuge for modernism: Hanna Bekker vom Rath promoted the art of the Brücke artists and the avant-garde in a variety of ways. Even during the National Socialist era her “Blue House” in Hofheim served as an intimate space for exchanges and exhibitions for the artists who were her friends. After the war she founded the Kunstkabinett in Frankfurt, the city’s first postwar gallery, and she undertook numerous international journeys on behalf of modern art. The texts and images sketch a multi-faceted portrait of an “ambassador of art” and document the influence of her achievements. Paperback256 pages | 180 color IllustrationsText in English and GermanHirmer, 20247.8 x 10 inchesISBN 9783777443546 Monograph

Hanna Bekker vom Rath: A Rebel for Mordern

Edited by Anke Finger and Julie Shoults This collection, for the first time, explores women’s self-conceptions and representations of women’s and gender roles in society in their own Expressionist works. How did women approach themes commonly considered to be characteristic of the Expressionist movement, and did they address other themes or aesthetics and styles not currently represented in the canon? Women in German Expressionism centers its analysis on gender, together with difference, ethnicity, intersectionality, and identity, to approach artworks and texts in more nuanced ways, engaging solidly established theoretical and sociohistorical approaches that enhance and update our understanding of the material under investigation. It moves beyond the masculine, “New Man,” viewpoint so firmly associated with German Expressionism and examines alternative, critical, and divergent interpretations of the changing world at the time. This collection seeks to broaden the theorization, scholarship, and reception of German Expressionism by—much belatedly—including works by women, and by shifting or redefining firmly established concepts and topics carrying only the imprint of male authors and artists to this day. Paperback372 pagesUniversity of Michigan Press, 20236 x 0.84 x 9 inchesISBN 9780472039388Women's Studies, German Expressionism

Women in German Expressionism: Gender, Sexuality, Activism

By Katya Moytl “In her superb new study of Viennese women, Motyl explores the real-life practices of a range of ‘new women’ during and after the First World War. Moving beyond approaches that treat the ‘new woman’ as a discursive or political phenomenon, she instead explores women’s everyday life practices. By tracing her subjects’ bodily routines, Motyl’s remarkably original work gives radical new meanings to the concept of a ‘new woman.’” ―Pieter M. Judson, author of The Habsburg Empire: A New History Explores the emergence of a new womanhood in turn-of-the-century Vienna. In Embodied Histories, historian Katya Motyl explores the everyday acts of defiance that formed the basis for new, unconventional forms of womanhood in early twentieth-century Vienna. The figures Motyl brings back to life defied gender conformity, dressed in new ways, behaved brashly, and expressed themselves freely, overturning assumptions about what it meant to exist as a woman. Motyl delves into how these women inhabited and reshaped the urban landscape of Vienna, an increasingly modern, cosmopolitan city. Specifically, she focuses on the ways that easily overlooked quotidian practices such as loitering outside cafés and wandering through city streets helped create novel conceptions of gender. Exploring the emergence of a new womanhood, Embodied Histories presents a new account of how gender, the body, and the city merge with and transform each other, showing how our modes of being are radically intertwined with the spaces we inhabit. Paperback304 pages | 50 halftonesUniversity of Chicago Press, 20246 x 0.73 x 9 inchesISBN 9780226832166 Women's History, Vienna

Embodied Histories: New Womanhood in Vienna, 1894-1934

By Patrick Mackie “Erudite, ambitious and elegantly written . . . Mackie’s assertions about the ways Mozart’s identification with his era come through in the music are intriguing and insightful . . . His writing is fresh and imaginative, showing feeling for the musical character and dramatic narrative of a piece.” —Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times Book Review “Mackie’s approach is to situate the composer as an avatar of modernism, facing a fragmented high culture—caught between dry, ritualized forms of courtly music and the ‘hedonistic levity’ betokened by Enlightenment individualism. By laying such tensions bare, Mackie achieves for Mozart what Mozart himself did for music, time and time again: to make the old new, and intelligible as such.” —Robert Erickson, The New Criterion In exhilarating, transformative prose, the poet Patrick Mackie reveals a musician in dialogue with culture at its most sweepingly progressive. Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand about his music, and what can it reveal to us about the great composer? Following Mozart from his youth in Salzburg to his early death, from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments, from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard, Patrick Mackie leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer’s life and brings alive the teeming, swiveling modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In this era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics, and political turbulence, Mozart reckoned with a searing talent that threatened to overwhelm him, all the while pushing himself to extraordinary feats of musicianship. In Mozart in Motion, we are returned to the volatility of the eighteenth century and hear Mozart’s music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still move us so intensely today as we continue to search for a modernity he imagined into being. Paperback368 pagesPicador, 20245.65 x 0.95 x 8.7 inchesISBN 9781250335715Biography, Austrian Composer

Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces

By Frank Tallis "Stunning in its breadth and depth, this is a magisterial treatment of a towering thinker." - Publisher's Weekly (starred review)"Convincingly critical and convincingly admiring―among the best of innumerable Freud bios." - Kirkus (starred review)A chronicle of Vienna's Golden Age and the influence of Sigmund Freud on the modern world by a clinical psychologist whose mystery novels form the basis of PBS's Vienna Blood series.Some cities are like stars. When the conditions are right, they ignite, and burn with such fierce intensity that they outshine every other city on the planet. Vienna was one such city and, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was the birthplace of the modern mind and the way we live today. Long coffee menus and celebrity interviews are Viennese inventions. ‘Modern’ buildings were appearing in Vienna long before they started appearing in New York and the idea of practical modern home design originated in the work of Viennese architect Adolf Loos. The place, however, where one finds the most indelible and profound impression of Viennese influence is inside your head. How we think about ourselves has been largely determined by Vienna’s most celebrated resident, Sigmund Freud.In Mortal Secrets, Frank Tallis brilliantly illuminates Sigmund Freud and his times, taking readers into the mind of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, chronicling the evolution of psychoanalysis and opening up Freud’s life to embrace the Vienna he lived in and the lives of the people he mingled with from Gustav Klimt to Arnold Schönberg, Egon Schiele to Gustav Mahler. Mortal Secrets is a thrilling book about a heady time in one of the world’s most beautiful cities and its long shadow that extends through the twentieth century up until the present day.Hardcover 496 pagesSt. Martin's Press, 20246.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inchesISBN 9781250288950 Austrian History

Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind

By Bryan GilliamRichard Strauss' successful conducting and composing career spanned one of the most fascinating stretches of modern German history, from oil lamps to atomic energy, from a young empire to a divided Germany. This biography covers Strauss' early musical development, his emergence as a tone poet in the late nineteenth century, his turn to the stage at the beginning of the twentieth century, the successes and misfires of the post-World War I era, the turbulent 1930s, and the period of the Second World War and its aftermath. Paperback212 pagesCambridge University Press, 19995.5 x 0.53 x 8.5 inches9780521578950 ISBNMusic, Biography

The Life of Richard Strauss

Original Price: $51 UP TO 20% ADDITIONAL SAVINGS FOR MEMBERS Ecrit par Armelle WeirichCélèbre en Autriche pour son salon au sein duquel elle accueillait les plus grands artistes et intellectuels de son temps – Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Stefan Zweig – Berta Zuckerkandl fut elle-même une critique d’art majeure qui a impulsé et soutenu le développement de l’art moderne au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles.Paperback294 pagesText in FrenchPu Rennes, 20236.69 x .59 x 9.65ISBN 9782753592391Viennese Salons, Austrian Writer

Berta Zuckerkandl: De Klimt à Rodin, une salonnière et critique d'art entre Vienne et Paris

By Harvey SachsA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2023 “[A]n immensely valuable source for anyone desiring an accessible overview of this endlessly controversial and chronically misunderstood giant of 20th-century music.” —John Adams, New York Times Book ReviewAn astonishingly lyrical biography that rescues Schoenberg from notoriety, restoring him to his rightful place in the pantheon of twentieth-century composers.In his time, the Austrian American composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) was an international icon. His twelve-tone system was considered the future of music itself. Today, however, leading orchestras rarely play his works, and his name is met with apathy, if not antipathy. With this interpretative account, the acclaimed biographer of Toscanini finally restores Schoenberg to his rightful place in the canon, revealing him as one of the twentieth century’s most influential composers and teachers. Sachs shows how Schoenberg, a thorny character who composed thorny works, raged against the “Procrustean bed” of tradition. Defying his critics—among them the Nazis, who described his music as “degenerate”—he constantly battled the anti-Semitism that eventually precipitated his flight from Europe to Los Angeles. Yet Schoenberg, synthesizing Wagnerian excess with Brahmsian restraint, created a shock wave that never quite subsided, and, as Sachs powerfully argues, his compositions must be confronted by anyone interested in the past, present, or future of Western music.Hardcover272 pagesLiveright, 20236.4 x 1 x 9.4 inchesISBN 9781631497575Biography, Austrian Composer

Schoenberg: Why He Matters

By Michael HaasA Financial Times Best Book of 2023: Classical Music“A deeply thoughtful, intensely detailed and clearly argued exploration. . . . This is not only a fascinating book, but an essential one, which will hopefully inspire further studies.”—Jessica Duchen, Engelsberg Ideas“Michael Haas is absolutely brilliant. His devotion to giving voice to the many creators who were brutally silenced during World War Two is inspiring and essential work. He does this with passion and knowledge.”—Marin Alsop“With great curiosity and empathy, Michael Haas illustrates climactic moments as these Jewish refugees lingered between worlds, lost countries and roots, and searched for new and old identities.”—Ute LemperWhat happens to a composer when persecution and exile means their true music no longer has an audience?In the 1930s, composers and musicians began to flee Hitler’s Germany to make new lives across the globe. The process of exile was complex: although some of their works were celebrated, these composers had lost their familiar cultures and were forced to navigate xenophobia as well as entirely different creative terrain. Others, far less fortunate, were in a kind of internal exile—composing under a ruthless dictatorship or in concentration camps and ghettos.Michael Haas sensitively records the experiences of this musical diaspora. Torn between cultures and traditions, these composers produced music that synthesized old and new worlds, some becoming core portions of today’s repertoire, some relegated to the desk drawer. Encompassing the musicians interned as enemy aliens in the United Kingdom, the brilliant Hollywood compositions of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and the Brecht-inspired theater music of Kurt Weill, Haas shows how these musicians shaped the twentieth-century soundscape—and offers a moving record of the incalculable effects of war on culture.Hardcover416 pages | 15 black-and-white images6.12 x 9.25 inchesYale University Press, 2023ISBN 9780300266504Jewish History, Music History

Music of Exile: The Untold Story of the Composers who Fled Hitler

By Rainer J. Hanshe"With its ingenious orchestration of the archive and its sensitivity to both the depths and inadvertencies of the creative process, Closing Melodies maps the twin stories of the last days of Friedrich Nietzsche and Vincent van Gogh within a phantasmagoria of space, time, and vision. Rainer J. Hanshe has an unparalleled grasp of what might be called the analytics of genius." —Nicholas Birns, New York UniversityAs the 19th century comes to a close, Friedrich Nietzsche and Vincent van Gogh unknowingly traverse proximate geographical terrain, nearly circling one another like close but distant stars as the philosopher wanders between Nizza, Sils Maria, and Torino, and the painter wanders between Paris, Arles, and Saint-Rémy. In the midst of their philosophical and artistic pursuits, simultaneously, the Eiffel Tower, symbol of artistic progress and industrialization, begins to rise in Paris amidst clamors of protest and praise.Through intertwining letters written to (& sometimes by) friends, family, and others, the philosopher and painter are brought into ever-greater proximity as we witness their daily personal and artistic struggles. Woven between and interrupting this panoply of voices are a series of intervals, short illuminating blasts, like a camera’s exploding flash powder, of artistic, scientific, political, and other events spanning 1888 to 1890, drawing Nietzsche and Van Gogh in and out of the wider expanses of history.As construction of the Eiffel Tower comes to completion in Paris and Elisabeth Förster, the sister of the philosopher of the will to power, tries to found a utopic race colony in South America, the lives of Nietzsche and Van Gogh come to their terrible denouements. Her brother now a full-fledged zombie, the former queen of Nueva Germania seizes the reins of his living corpse and rides him into the future.With no deus ex machina in sight, and none possible, WWI and the terrors and the beauties of the 20th century crack the horizon.Paperback836 pagesContra Mundum Press, 20236 x 1.85 x 9 inchesISBN 9781940625522History, Biography

Closing Melodies

This book was featured in our Lecture Series. Translated by Ulrich Baer from the collection edited by Rainer StammIntroduction by Jill LloydThe painter Paula Modersohn-Becker and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke were two of the most talented and original creative artists at work in early twentieth-century Europe. They enjoyed a close friendship that left in its wake a remarkable series of letters. Encompassing topics such as art, literature, and the nature of marriage, their correspondence testifies to both writers’ brilliant descriptive gifts and penetrating social intelligence. Brought together in English for the first time, the letters that Modersohn-Becker and Rilke sent to one another provide a fascinating view of everyday life during an exceptionally fertile and exciting period of cultural production.Paperback120 pagesEris Press, 20247.8 x 5.1 inchesISBN 9781916809901Biography, Correspondence, Art History

The Modersohn-Becker/Rilke Correspondence

By Walter Benjamin Translated by Harry Zohn “I fully realize that my discussion of the mental climate of collecting will confirm many of you in your conviction that this passion is behind the times, in your distrust of the collector type. Nothing is further from my mind than to shake either your conviction or your distrust.” Walter Benjamin was one of the great cultural critics of the twentieth century. In Unpacking My Library he offers a strikingly personal meditation on his career as a book collector and on the strange relations that spring up between objects and their owners. Witty, erudite and often moving, this book will resonate with bibliophiles of all kinds.Eris Gems make available in the form of beautifully produced saddle-stitched booklets a series of outstanding short works of fiction and non-fiction.Paperback24 pagesEris Gems, 2022Originally published in 19317.64 x 4.33 inchesISBN 9781912475841 Essays

Unpacking My Library

Edited by Maura E. Hametz and Heidi Schlipphacke “Excellent and engaging…It is a collection best read, in my opinion, from cover to cover, for this is the only way to fully appreciate how well its chapters cohere around its fragmented and protean subject.” ―Journal of Austrian Studies Sissi's World offers a transdisciplinary approach to the study of the Habsburg Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It investigates the myths, legends, and representations across literature, art, film, and other media of one of the most popular, revered, and misunderstood female figures in European cultural history.Sissi's World explores the cultural foundations for the endurance of the Sissi legends and the continuing fascination with the beautiful empress: a Bavarian duchess born in 1837, the longest-serving Austrian empress, and the queen of Hungary who died in 1898 at the hands of a crazed anarchist.Despite the continuing fascination with “the beloved Sissi," the Habsburg empress, her impact, and legacy have received scant attention from scholars. This collection will go beyond the popular biographical accounts, recountings of her mythic beauty, and scattered studies of her well-known eccentricities to offer transdisciplinary cultural perspectives across art, film, fashion, history, literature, and media.Paperback408 pages | 30 black-and-white illustrationsBloomsbury Publishing, 20209 x 6 inchesISBN 9781501361685Austrian Royal History, Habsburg Empire

Sissi’s World: The Empress Elisabeth in Memory and Myth

Edited by Elizabeth Otto and Patrick Rössler “Bauhaus Bodies addresses gender issues more broadly, with fourteen essays by established and newer scholars on body culture, spirituality, dance, androgyny, clothing, experimental photography, and the unsung contributions of Bauhaus wives and female wall painters.” ―Woman's Art Journal“Dispensing with the usual focus on a monolithic school and its leaders, this collection will prove an indispensable resource for investigating the Bauhaus' immediate social impact, historical context, and far-reaching historical implications.” ―CHOICEA century after the Bauhaus's founding in 1919, this book reassesses it as more than a highly influential art, architecture, and design school. In myriad ways, emerging ideas about the body in relation to health, movement, gender, and sexuality were at the heart of art and life at the school. Bauhaus Bodies reassesses the work of both well-known Bauhaus members and those who have unjustifiably escaped scholarly scrutiny, its women in particular.In fourteen original, cutting-edge essays by established experts and emerging scholars, this book reveals how Bauhaus artists challenged traditional ideas about bodies and gender. Written to appeal to students, scholars, and the broad public, Bauhaus Bodies will be essential reading for anyone interested in modern art, architecture, design history, and gender studies; it will define conversations and debates during the 2019 centenary of the Bauhaus's founding and beyond.Paperback392 pages | 12 color and 110 black-and-white illustrationsBloomsbury Publishing, 20199 x 6 inchesISBN 9781501344787Bauhaus History, Gender Studies, Essays

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