000			a
999			_c31592 _d31592
008			230315b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780525559689
082			_a193 _bEIL
100			_aEilenberger, Wolfram
245			_aTime of the magicians : Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the decade that reinvented philosophy
260			_bPenguin Books, _c2020 _aNew York :
300			_a418 p. ; _bill., (b & w), 16 unnumbered pages of plates, _c22 cm
365			_b19.00 _cUSD _d85.20
504			_aTranslated from the German. Includes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aA grand narrative of the intertwining lives of Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Ernst Cassirer, major philosophers whose ideas shaped the twentieth century The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is still fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin, whose life is characterized by false starts and unfinished projects, is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a jobbing critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, as a scion of one of the biggest industrial families in Europe, in order to commit himself unswervingly to a life of the mind. Meanwhile, Heidegger, having managed to avoid combat in war by serving instead as a meteorologist, is carefully cultivating his career, aligning himself with the great Edmund Husserl, and renouncing his prior Catholic associations. Finally, Cassirer is working furiously on the margins of academia, applying himself intensely to his writing and the possibility of a career at Hamburg University. The stage is set for a great intellectual drama, which will unfold across the next decade. The lives and ideas of this great philosophical quartet will converge as they become world historical figures. But as the Second World War looms on the horizon, their fates will be very different. Wolfram Eilenberger, internationally-bestselling author, stylishly traces the paths of these remarkable and turbulent lives, which feature not only philosophy but some of the most important economists, politicians, journalists, and artists of the century, including John Maynard Keynes, Hannah Arendt, and Bertrand Russell. In doing so, he tells a gripping story about some of history's most ambitious and passionate thinkers, as well as illuminating with rare clarity and economy their brilliant ideas, which all too often have been regarded as enigmatic or opaque.
650			_aBiography
650			_aMemoir
650			_aEuropean world history
650			_aGerman
650			_aPhilosophy
942			_2ddc _cBK