Scarecrow Press
Pages: 472
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-0-8108-8031-3 • Hardback • December 2013 • $197.00 • (£152.00)
Carol Diethe was originally a philologist at Middlesex University but for most of her career she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the History of Ideas. Her overall remit was with the European Cultural History division of which she was Head. She was the first Secretary of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society and she had written and translated several books on Nitezsche.
This substantially enriched third edition of a bounteous resource in Anglophone Nietzsche scholarship begins with a brief chronology of the colossally influential, late 19th-century German philosopher's life and works. Diethe covers Nietzsche's student days in the 1860s to his irreversible mental collapse in the late 1880s. A densely informative 59-page introduction spans his life, published works, and brief histories of the reception and influence of his thought among philosophers and cultural figures in Germany, France, Great Britain, the US, Italy, Spain and the Hispanic world, Russia, Japan, and China. Sixteen pages of images include Nietzsche from his youthful student days to adulthood, as well as family, scholarly friends, and acquaintances. Usefully teeming with cross-references, the 400-plus encyclopedic entries cover, in addition to familiar Nietzschean themes and concepts, a remarkably diverse array of figures and movements that, either as predecessors or contemporaries, influenced Nietzsche's thought, or have subsequently borne his influence. The volume concludes with a thematically organized, 40-page bibliography of Nietzsche's works, translations thereof, and scholarship organized by interpretive approaches, a focus on individual works, and by reception throughout the world. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers.
— Choice Reviews
Diethe’s expanded 3d edition of her Historical Dictionary of Nietzscheanism fulfills its goals admirably. A lengthy introductory essay details the reception of Nietzsche’s works and its effects on scholarship throughout Europe and in Japan, China, Russia, and the United States. The bulk of the volume is composed of short entries on Nietzsche’s works and ideas, and on the persons, concepts, and phrases significant to his life. The book includes several photographs of Nietzsche and people and places related to him. Most historical dictionaries on philosophical topics or thinkers should not include photographs or extensive biographical information; in the case of Nietzsche, such materials and information is crucial. Nietzsche’s writings are both deeply personal and cryptic. This work seeks to illuminate not by ignoring the difficulties of Nietzsche scholarship, but by making information available to scholars and novices alike. Indeed, this volume would be an excellent introduction to Nietzscheanism, and it should help answer questions posed by those more familiar with his work. This volume will be useful to students and researchers needing information on Nietzsch’e’s life, works, and teachings.
— American Reference Books Annual