Michael Tanner Book order (chronological)

New chronology and further reading Translated by R. J. Hollingdale Introduction by Michael Tanner.

The author of "Social Security and Its Discontents" now maintains that the Bush administration, Congress, and large parts of the Republican Party and the conservative movement have abandoned traditional conservative ideals and embraced the idea of big government.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) heeft als geen ander een stempel gedrukt op de filosofie, de literatuur en de kunst van de twintigste eeuw. Het lezen van Nietzsche is nog steeds een schokkende, soms zelfs pijnlijke ervaring, maar altijd een boeiend avontuur. Hij was zijn tijd in vele opzichten ver vooruit en behandelt in zijn geschriften filosofische problemen waarvan de omvang en de werkelijke betekenis pas in de twintigste eeuw werden begrepen. Michael Tanner schreef een uitermate leesbare inleiding in het leven en het werk van Nietzsche. Hij rekent tevens af met de vele misvattingen die de laatste honderd jaar hardnekking de ronde blijven doen over deze ‘filosoof met de hamer’.

With his well-known idiosyncrasies and aphoristic style, Friedrich Nietzsche is always bracing and provocative, and temptingly easy to dip into. Michael Tanner's introduction to the philosopher's life and work examines the numerous ambiguities inherent in his writings and explodes many of the misconceptions that have grown in the hundred years since Nietzsche wrote "do not, above all, confound me with what I am not!"About the Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

In 1888, the last sane year of his life Nietzsche produced these two brief but devastating books. Twilight of the Idols, 'a grand declaration of war' on all the prevalent ideas of his time, offers a lightning tour of his whole philosophy. It also prepares the way for The Anti-Christ, a final assault on institutional Christianity. Yet although Nietzsche makes a compelling case for the 'Dionysian' artist and celebrates magnificently two of his great heroes, Goethe and Cesare Borgia, he also gives a moving, almost ecstatic portrait of his only worthy opponent: Christ. Both works show Nietsche lashing out at self-deception, astounded at how often morality is based on vengefulness and resentment. Both combine utterly unfair attacks on individuals with amazingly acute surveys of the whole contemporary cultural scene. Both reveal a profound understanding of human mean-spiritedness which still cannot destroy the underlying optimism of Nietzsche, the supreme affirmer among the great philosophers.

With his epic trilogy, The Sleepwalkers , Hermann Broch established himself as one of the great innovators of modern literature, a visionary writer-philosopher the equal of James Joyce, Thomas Mann, or Robert Musil. Even as he grounded his narratives in the intimate daily life of Germany, Broch was identifying the oceanic changes that would shortly sweep that life into the abyss. Whether he is writing about a neurotic army officer (The Romantic) , a disgruntled bookkeeper and would-be assassin (The Anarchist) , or an opportunistic war-deserter (The Realist) , Broch immerses himself in the twists of his characters' psyches, and at the same time soars above them, to produce a prophetic portrait of a world tormented by its loss of faith, morals, and reason.

An entirely new translation of Nietzsche's fourth book, which falls in what is regarded as his "positivist" period. Especially notable for the advance it represents in his understanding of psychology.