Carl Schmitt – A Biography

Mehring s study...lay bare the links betweenSchmitt s litigious life and his complicated ideas. Library Journal Reinhard Mehring offers the English speaking world the firstcomprehensive intellectual biography of the highly controversiallegal and political theorist, Carl Schmitt. Based onextensive archival research and a vast amount of unpublishedmaterial, Mehring identifies the psychological and emotionalmotivations that drove the intellectual endeavors of the notoriousphilosopher of the political and the state of exception. Mehring demonstrates conclusively how Schmitt's struggles with,among other issues, his sexual desire and his obsession with theJews, generated some of the most important, influential anddangerous political writings of the twentieth century. John P. McCormick, University of Chicago In this fascinating biography, Mehring has used Schmitt sonly recently available diaries and calendar entries to lay barethe obsessions of this brilliant thinker -- often referred to asthe Hobbes of the 20th century. Especially revealing are hisstruggles to shatter the Jew in him, which led him toaspire to become Hitler s pope with all thatthat implied. Politically naive about Nazism, he wasseverely attacked by the SS in 1936 and marginalized for, amongother reasons, his pre-1933 close association with Jews and hisanti-Nazism. George Schwab, President, National Committee on American ForeignPolicy