Romanticism: A German Affair Hardcover – June 30, 2014

When people think about Germany, certain things often come to mind. But few think about the bright minds that lit up the German skies, back at the turn of the 19th century. These were deep thinkers - they studied philosophy and science, wrote books and filled lecture halls, inspired a whole generation of Germans to pursue ideas of all kinds. Their names and efforts (with the possible exception of Goethe) largely go unnoticed and unheard of in today's world. I enjoy reading texts like this, because I can get glimpses of how they lived (and thought) through their letters and journals and texts. All of our technology would be completely alien to them - they didn't even have planes or cars back then, so they lived in a much different world. Germany is home to a number of bright-minded scholars, that still have something to offer the world even now.

Ruediger Safranski's book is original, scintillating, informative, an ideal introduction to German Romantic literature. I've been reading the German Romantics, and books about them, for years; yet from this stimulating survey I continually learned to recognize new connections, new influences, new insights. Safranski has a flair for narrative, along with philosophical acuity and a gift for the trenchant phrase. On top of that, he is witty and likeable.

brilliant insights and unexpected views of the German intellectual period.

Only for German culture aficionados and those willing to immerse themselves into the depths of German philosophical thinking of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Wonderfully written. It’s a pivotal text for those interested in German music, art, literature and philosophy of the pre-romantic and romantic eras.

I'd already read it in Portuguese - now, I'm doing it again ... I'm having a ball !I love this book !!

a readable, ambitious history of German Romanticism from the late 18c to the 20c. examples well chosen. a good introduction

I bought this book looking for an intelligent overview of Romanticism in its birthplace, Germany. I wanted to learn about the chief German writers and thinkers and artists who had so impacted England, France, and eventually America (in the Transcendentalist movement of the mid 19th century), that turbulent aftershocks continued to be felt as late as the 1960s.This book unfortunately does not deliver an answer to that need. The reason is that it was written by a German, and therefore it assumes a lot of knowledge that an English speaker, and certainly an American, would want and need to have spoonfed to him. Names, dates, customs, ideas are thrown around in a brilliant but uninformative vortex. Moreover, the style is very concept-driven and lacking in material detail, which again might satisfy German readers already familiar with a lot of the names and circumstances - particularly highly caffeinated, not to say amphetamine-driven Germans - but is unlikely to satisfy the anglophone reader with a bit of free time and a desire to curl up with an entertaining book.What this topic needs is a Joseph Ellis or a Louis Menand, who could spin a kind of novelistic bestseller with the scholarly finesse to win over the purists - a "founding fathers" story full of psychological insight and colorful detail. But unfortunately Safranski, in spite of his impressive catalog of previous works (including a very enjoyable and profound biography of Heidegger), is not the right man for the job.