Understanding Rosenstock-Huessy: A Haphazard Collection of Ventures

The contributions of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888–1973), one of the most profound and original thinkers of the twentieth century, span several disciplines in the humanities—history, philosophy, sociology, linguistics, religion—although his work is ultimately uncategorizable. In 1933, immediately upon the ascent of Hitler, he emigrated to the United States from Germany, taught at Harvard for two years, and then at Dartmouth College until 1957. His voice was prophetic, urgent, compelling, and it remains relevant. This collection of essays is by a retired professor of history who was a student of Rosenstock-Huessy’s in the 1950s and found his lecturing transformative. It is not a nostalgic book, however. It is written with the conviction that Rosenstock-Huessy still needs to be heard, more urgently than ever for the betterment of humankind.

Norman Fiering is the author of two books, including Jonathan Edwards's Moral Thought and Its British Context (1981), available from Wipf & Stock, and numerous journal articles. For twenty-three years he was director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.