Habermas: An Intellectual Biography (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521738316)

This book follows postwar Germany's leading philosopher and social thinker, J rgen Habermas, through four decades of political and constitutional struggle over the shape of liberal democracy in Germany. Habermas's most influential theories - of the public sphere, communicative action, and modernity - were decisively shaped by major West German political events: the failure to de-Nazify the judiciary, the rise of a powerful Constitutional Court, student rebellions in the late 1960s, the changing fortunes of the Social Democratic Party, NATO's decision to station nuclear weapons, and the unexpected collapse of East Germany. In turn, Habermas's writings on state, law, and constitution played a critical role in reorienting German political thought and culture to a progressive liberal-democratic model. Matthew Specter uniquely illuminates the interrelationship between the thinker and his culture.

Author: Matthew G. Specter
ISBN-10: 0521738318
ISBN-13: 9780521738316
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/27/2010
Pages: 278
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.92h x 6.12w x 0.61d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2011