The Worker: Dominion and Form - Softcover

Jünger, Ernst

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810136171 ISBN 13: 9780810136175

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2017

Synopsis

Written in 1932, just before the fall of the Weimar Republic and on the eve of the Nazi accession to power, Ernst Jünger’s The Worker: Dominion and Form articulates a trenchant critique of bourgeois liberalism and seeks to identify the form characteristic of the modern age. Jünger’s analyses, written in critical dialogue with Marx, are inspired by a profound intuition of the movement of history and an insightful interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy.

Martin Heidegger considered Jünger “the only genuine follower of Nietzsche,” singularly providing “an interpretation which took shape in the domain of that metaphysics which already determines our epoch, even against our knowledge; this metaphysics is Nietzsche's doctrine of the ‘will to power.’” In The Worker, Jünger examines some of the defining questions of that epoch: the nature of individuality, society, and the state; morality, justice, and law; and the relationships between freedom and power and between technology and nature.

This work, appearing in its entirety in English translation for the first time, is an important contribution to debates on work, technology, and politics by one of the most controversial German intellectuals of the twentieth century. Not merely of historical interest, The Worker carries a vital message for contemporary debates about world economy, political stability, and equality in our own age, one marked by unsettling parallels to the 1930s.

About this title

About the Author:

ERNST JÜNGER (1895–1998) was a German novelist and essayist perhaps best known to English-speaking audiences for Storm of Steel, based on his experience as a German soldier in World War I.

LAURENCE PAUL HEMMING is a professor at Lancaster University in the Management School and in the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and Religion. He is the author of Heidegger and Marx: A Productive Dialogue over the Language of Humanism and Heidegger's Atheism: The Refusal of a Theological Voice.

BOGDAN COSTEA is a professor at Lancaster University Management School in the Department of Organisation, Work, and Technology. He is an editor (with Laurence Paul Hemming and Kostas Amiridis) of The Movement of Nihilism: Heidegger's Thinking after Nietzsche.

Review:

"This excellent translation of Ernst Jünger’s most important book is a signal event for scholars of twentieth century European literature, culture, politics, and philosophy. In particular, Jünger’s interpretation of the Gestalt of the worker helped to shape Martin Heidegger’s influential view of modern technology.” --Michael E. Zimmerman, author of Heidegger's Confrontation with Modernity 

"The twentieth century was marked by revolutions, horrors, and profound changes that still puzzle us and haunt our self-understanding.  Anyone wanting to understand those events, as well as the present that has emerged out of them, needs to read Jünger's The Worker and to take seriously the 'new reality' it wants to make visible.  One welcomes the appearance of this landmark of twentieth century thought in English: Jünger's remarkable literary style is well served by this translation." --Dennis J. Schmidt, author of Idiome der Wahrheit (Idioms of Truth) and Between Word and Image

"This translation of Ernst Jünger's The Worker is long overdue, and the startling re-emergence of many political themes from the 1930s makes it especially timely. Costea and Hemming have done an excellent job at making this influential and important work finally accessible to English readers.” —Jeff Malpas, author of Heidegger’s Topology

About this edition

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0810136171
• ISBN 13: 9780810136175
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232
• Editor: Hemming Laurence Paul