the Politics of Unpolitical

In this book, Craig deals with a question that has always been a point of controversy: do political writers have responsibility and are they obliged to show political engagement in their work? Craig answers this question by studying ten German writers from 1770-1871, among them Goethe, Schiller, Klein, and Heine and finds that these `unpolitical' writers were actively engaged in their politics. Craig deals with a question that has always been a point of controversy: do political writers have responsibility and are they obliged to show political engagement in their works? Craig answers this question by studying ten German writers from 1770-1871, among them Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Heine and finds that these `unpolitical' writers were actively engaged in their politics.

In this collection of fourteen essays, first published in 1943, Herbert Read extends and amplifies the points of view expressed in his successful pamphlet To Hell with Culture, which has been reprinted here. The ‘politics of the unpolitical’ are the politics of those who strive for human values and not for national or sectional interests. Herbert Read defines these values and demands their recognition as a solvent of social and cultural crises’, and looks forward to the future with constructive vision. This book will be of interest to students of politics, history, and philosophy.