Neither Rock Nor Refuge: A History of Nietzsche in America

FAIN: FT-53449-05

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen
University of Wisconsin, Madison (Coral Gables, FL 33146-2919)

My book project is a history of the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas and image on American society. For over a century, readers have understood Nietzsche’s philosophy as a direct assault on the foundations of modern American life. His pronouncement that “God is Dead,” his longing for the Superman, and his critique of Christianity, Enlightenment rationality, and democracy, have dramatically influenced Americans’ ideas about their religious, political, and cultural life. By examining the intellectual networks linking Nietzsche’s Europe and America, my book contributes to the growing desire among U.S. historians to understand both the national particularity and the transnational scope of American thought and culture.