American Nietzsche : a history of an icon and his ideas

464 Pages·2012·10.51 MB·English

by  Nietzsche

AMERICAN NIETZSCHE

A~nerican
A HISTORY OF AN
ICON AND HIS IDEAS
JENNIFER RATNER-ROSENHAGEN is the Merle Curti
Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin
Madison.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 6o637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 I 2 3 4 5
Is B N- r3: 978-o-226-7o58r-r (cloth)
Is B N- ro: o-226-7o58r-r (cloth)
A subvention for this publication has been awarded through a
competitive grant from the UniversityofWisconsin-Madison
Provost's Office and the Graduate School. Graduate School
funding has been provided by the Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation (WARF) with income generated by patents filed
through WARF by UW- Madison faculty and staff.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ratner-Rosenhagen, Jennifer.
American Nietzsche : a history of an icon and his ideas I
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Is B N- r3: 978-o-226"7o58r-r (hardcover : alk. paper)
Is B N- ro: o-226-7o58r-r (hardcover : alk. paper) r. Nietzsche,
Friedrich Wilhelm, r844 -1900. 2. Nietzsche, Friedrich
Wilhelm, r844-I9oo-lnfl.uence. 3· United States
Civilization-German influences. 4· Philosophy, American.
5· United States-Intellectual life. I. Title.
B 3317-R 338 2012
193-dc22
20IIOIII89
@This paper meets the requirements of ANSIINISO
Z39.48-r992 (Permanence of Paper).
For My Parents

List of Illustrations ix
PROLOGUE
Transatlantic Crossings: The Aboriginal Intellect Abroad
INTRODUCTION 21
CHAPTER ONE
The Making of the American Nietzsche 29
Nietzsche and the European Axis of American Cosmopolitanism 35
The Nietzsche Vogue 45
The Persona of Nietzsche 51
Launching "Nietzschean" and "Nietzscheism" into American English 67
CHAPTER TWO
The Soul of Man under Modernity 69
Nietzsche and the Problems of Modern Thought 75
Unapologetic Catholic Apologetics So
The Social Gospel and the Practicability of Christianity 87
Nietzsche's Service to Christianity 94
Jesus of Nazareth, Nietzsche of Naumburg 99
CHAPTER THREE
The American Naturalization oft he Ubermensch 109
The Ubermensch in the Popular Imagination II2
Self-Overcoming and Social Uplift rr6
Modern Whirl and Romantic Self-Abandonment 126
The Ubermensch and the German National Mind 132
The Ubermensch at War and the "Made in Germany" Generation 136
To Each His Own Ubermensch 144
CHAPTER FOUR
Nietzsche as Educator 149
Experiencing Intellect; or, World-Making Words 154
Imitatio Nietzsche 167
The "Gay Science" of Cultural Criticism 176
The Modern Intellect and Prophetic Longing 190
INTERLUDE
Devotions: The Letters 193
Nietzsche Possession, Possessing Nietzsche 199
Nietzschean Self-Fashioning 203
Nietzsche Pilgrimage 209
Pathos of Distance from Democratic Culture 210
CHAPTER FIVE
Dionysian Enlightenment 219
Walter Kaufmann, German Emigres, and Nietzsche as Hitler's Exile 224
Nietzsche as Problem Thinker 233
Nietzsche and the Nazis 239
Nietzschean Experimentalism and Jamesian Pragmatism 244
Counter-Dionysian Enlightenments 250
Kaufmann's Nietzsche for All and None 260
CHAPTER SIX
Antifoundationalism on Native Grounds 263
Harold Bloom: The Quest for Emersonian Priority 274
Richard Rorty: Fusing the Horizons between Nietzsche and the Pragmatists 285
Stanley Cavell: Nietzsche, Emerson, and American Philosophy Fmding
Its Way Home 295
Thinking about American Thinking 304
EPILOGUE
Nietzsche Is Us 307
Acknowledgments 313
Notes 321
Bibliography 387
Index 443
Nietzsche's note to himself, written on the back of his first fan letter from the
United States (1881) 3
Nietzsche's copy of Emerson's Essays 7
Nietzsche's notebook with his transcribed Emerson quotations 8
Nietzsche at age sixteen in front of the Schulpforta church (circa summer
1861) II
Nietzsche's marginalia in Emerson's "Spiritual Laws" 16
Nietzsche at age thirty-eight (1882) 53
"Nietzsche-The Antichrist!" from Current Literature (April 1908) 54
Max Klinger, sculpture of Nietzsche, as reproduced in Current Literature
(March 1906) 55
Nietzsche at age twenty, with his Franconia Fraternity in Bonn (1865) 61
Nietzsche's "Protest against Himself," from Paul Carus, "Immorality as a
Philosophic Principle" (Monist, July 1899) 63
M. Klein, statue of Nietzsche, as reproduced in Paul Carus, "Friedrich
Nietzsche" (Monist, April 1907) 64
Kahlil Gibran's drawing for the cover of The Prophet (1923) 165
John Boogher Jr.'s letter to Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche (July 29, 1926) 201
"Mussolini's Three Political Saints" (New York Times, February 15, 1925) 220
Undated photograph of Walter Kaufmann 235
Adolf Hitler's visit to the Nietzsche Archive, Weimar, Germany (1934) 242
"Is God Dead?" Time magazine cover (AprilS, 1966) 255
From "My Life," comic in "Nietzsche's Return" (Semiotext(e) special issue,
1978) 268
The infirm Nietzsche, one year before his death (summer 1899) 270
Illustration by Jay Cotton in George Scialabba, "Thoroughly Modern
Friedrich," Village Voice (August 19, 1986) 272