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Identity or History?

Name: Identity or History?
Author: Martin L. Davies
ISBN: 9780814324349

by Martin L. Davies

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Overview

Identity or History? is a unique study of Marcus Herz, a Jewish philosopher and doctor in late eighteenth-century Berlin, and of German-Jewish culture at the end of the Enlightenment. More than a biography, this book explores questions of German-Jewish identity and of the discrepancies between Enlightenment theory and practice. Martin Davies draws parallels between Herz's personal life and Prussian politics and culture to make sense of the end of the eighteenth century when Enlightenment tradition and Romantic thought coincided. Identity or History? attempts to reconstruct Herz's cultural and social identity from his misunderstandings of the movements in which he participated and to infer from his contradictions the coherence of his intellectual positions. Davies illustrates that the contradictions that mark Herz's life and works are symptomatic for his position as a German Jew and for his time.

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Explores questions of German Jewish identity and the discrepancies between Enlightenment theory and practice by drawing parallels between Prussian politics and culture and the personal life of Jewish philosopher and doctor Herz (1747-1803), a prominent figure in the intellectual and social life of Berlin as the Enlightenment was washing up on the shores of Romanticism. Argues that though he was not of the stature of his contemporaries Kant, Mendelssohn, and Schleiermacher, his attempts to address the same issues should not be ignored by historians. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)