The First World War radicalized Thomas Mann and turned him in to an anti-modern reactionary nationalist.  The result was his massive Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, which defends Germany (paradoxically) as a nation with a nonpolitical tradition in which the arts flourished.  After the war he made his peace with modern democracy, but it was only after the Second World War that he was able to analyze and reject his own earlier reactionary stance.  We will read some excerpts from his essays in these three periods to discuss political reaction more generally.

On Thursday, April 24, at 6 PM, join Mark Lilla (Columbia) for a discussion of Thomas Mann and reactionary politics.