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Herder and Enlightenment Politics

Eva Piirimäe

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Hardback

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English
Cambridge University Press
06 April 2023
Johann Gottfried Herder initiated the modern disciplines of philosophical anthropology and cultural history, including the study of popular culture. He is also remembered as a sharp critic of colonialism and imperialism. But what types of social, economic and political arrangements did Herder envision for modern European societies? Herder and Enlightenment Politics provides a radically new interpretation of Herder's political thought, situating his ideas in Enlightenment debates on modern patriotism, commerce and peace. By reconstructing Herder's engagement with Rousseau, Montesquieu, Abbt, Ferguson, Möser, Kant and many other contemporary authors, Eva Piirimäe shows that Herder was deeply interested in the potential for cultural, moral and political reform in Russia, Germany and Europe. Herder probed the foundations of modern liberty, community and peace, developing a distinctive understanding of human self-determination, natural sociability and modern patriotism as well as advocating a vision of Europe as a commercially and culturally interconnected community of peoples.
By:  
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 156mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   760g
ISBN:   9781009263863
ISBN 10:   1009263862
Series:   Ideas in Context
Pages:   398
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Eva Piirimäe is Associate Professor of Political Theory at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. She has published widely on Enlightenment moral philosophy and political thought. Her research has appeared in journals such as History of Political Thought, European History of Ideas, Eighteenth-Century Studies and Global Responsibility to Protect. Her recent publications include a co-edited History of European Ideas special issue ""Sociability in Enlightenment Thought"" (2015) and the co-edited volume Herder on Empathy and Sympathy (2020).

Reviews for Herder and Enlightenment Politics

'… a concise, erudite, and well-written study … Eva Piirimäe's study masterfully fulfills the goals it sets itself, namely “to provide a full-bodied and nuanced historical reconstruction” of Herder's evolving political thought.' Kirill Ospovat, Monatshefte 'Eva Piirimäe's Herder and Enlightenment Politics deserves recognition as a landmark study in the scholarship of both Johann Gottfried Herder, and of eighteenth century political thought more broadly.' Andrew Walker, History of European Ideas '… a concise, erudite, and well-written study of some of the primary strains of Herder's thought in their interrelationships, traced through all phases of his evolution, from the 1760s to 1800s. For readers who, like the present reviewer, are not already Herder experts but are interested in Enlightenment intellectual history, the book offers an informative, original, and well-contextualized introduction to Herder's thought and its place in multiple philosophical and political debates.' Kirill Ospovat, Monatshefte 'An excellent contribution to recent Herder scholarship in the English language … a considerable achievement with a great deal of scholarly merit for which the author should be highly commended. It is a valuable contribution to the field that I unhesitatingly recommend not only to those interested in Herder's political thought, but also to those interested more generally in the intellectual history of patriotism in Europe in the late eighteenth century.' Vicki A. Spencer, Herder Yearbook 'A great book, which will, I hope, greatly expand the scholarly appreciation of [Herder's] thinking in English-speaking circles … with exceptionally deep and broad consideration and contextualization of Herder's voluminous writings, putting his many essays and arguments into their specific historical, political, and spatial environs, and posing them against the writings of others that he was reading and responding to at specific points in time … I suspect that I will not be alone in therefore finding myself, especially as an English-speaking fan of Herder's life and ideas, very much in Piirimäe's debt.' Russell Arben Fox, The European Legacy


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