Mahon O'Brien is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He is also the author of Heidegger, History and the Holocaust (2015) and Heidegger and Authenticity: From Resoluteness to Releasement (2013).
While squarely facing Heidegger's troubling political attitudes and personal flaws, Mahon O'Brien shows that one of the most original and creative philosophers to have lived and worked in the twentieth century remains thought-provoking today. O'Brien draws on letters, notebooks, and reminiscences as well as the canonical texts to create a stimulating introduction to Heidegger's life, ideas, and legacies. -- Richard Polt, Professor of Philosophy, Xavier University With exemplary clarity and a sure command of its subject, O'Brien's compendious introduction weaves together deeply appreciative and incisive glosses on the diverse yet also continuous pathways of Heidegger's thought - and its legacy and global reach - with an unvarnished portrait of the philosopher's difficult temperament, complete with often unflattering, alarming, and notorious details of his personal and public life. -- Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Professor of Philosophy, Boston University