FOREIGN RIGHTS CATALOGUE AUTUMN 2017 WISSENSCHAFTLICHE BUCHGESELLSCHAFT including the imprints
KONRAD THEISS PHILIPP VON ZABERN
Contact
WBG – Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Dr. Christina Kerz Foreign Rights Manager HindenburgstraĂ&#x;e 40 64295 Darmstadt, Germany
kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de Phone: +49 (0)6151 3308 159 Fax: +49 (0)6151 3308 212
Translation: Tobias Gabel (t.gabel@uebersetzung-gabel.de)
HISTORY
War After the War: Revolution and Upheaval, 1918/19 .............................................................. 4 When Prussia Shook the World: The Seven Years’ War, 1756–63 ................................................5 When States Kill: A History of Capital Punishment ....................................................................... 6 War in the Middle Ages.................................................................................................................. 7 Technology in the Ancient World.................................................................................................. 8 Dacia Felix: Ancient Romania at the Crossroads of Cultures ........................................................ 9
ANCIENT SCIENCE
Crime Scenes of the Distant Past: Archaeology and Forensics .................................................... 10 The First Artists: Ice-Age Caves of the Swabian Alps ................................................................... 11 The Vikings and Their Ships.......................................................................................................... 12 The Etruscans: Ancient Civilization in the Shadow of Rome ........................................................ 13 As Told on a Grecian Urn: The Visual Imagination of the Ancient Greeks ................................... 14 Seeking, in His Soul, the Art of Greece ...: The Life and Times of Johann Joachim Winckelmann.................................................................. 15 Mycenaean Palaces: Art and Culture ........................................................................................... 16
NATURAL SCIENCES
Newton’s Apple: Fifty Milestones in the History of Science ........................................................ 17
MUSIC
What Is Pop Music? ...................................................................................................................... 18
MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES
Heinrich Böll ................................................................................................................................. 19 Homes of the Poets ..................................................................................................................... 20 The Cosmopolitan Romantic: The Life and Times of August Wilhelm Schlegel ........................... 21 Travel Literature .......................................................................................................................... 22
PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY
Hans Jonas: Liberty and Responsibility ........................................................................................ 23 Media Philosophy: A Handbook .................................................................................................. 24 Philosophical Concepts and the Natural Sciences .......................................................................25 Is Science Really Objective? ........................................................................................................ 26 On Pilgrimage ............................................................................................................................... 27
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
3
Krieg nach dem Krieg Revolution und Umbruch 1918/19
HISTORY
War After the War: Revolution and Upheaval, 1918/19
by Anton Holzer September 2017 192 pages, 160 images ISBN 978-3-8062-3560-9
In 1918, a long, destructive, and immensely painful world war finally came to an end. Empires had crumbled, monarchs were chased from their thrones, and amid the ruins of war, young republics were founded. In Germany and Austria, a widespread feeling of national impotence before long turned into anger, rebellion, then outright revolution. The violent suppression of the civil war that now flared up was followed by the gloominess of the immediate postwar era with its economic crisis and hyperinflation. Seen against this backdrop, the “Roaring Twenties,” which then began, appear to have been flirting with disaster. In his new book, Anton Holzer draws on both the autobiographical testimony of first-hand witnesses and striking photography to give a fresh and true-to-life perspective to the narrative of these decisive years in world history. His focus is not on “big politics,” but on the everyday life of regular people, on their hopes and disappointments. Holzer’s witnesses tell us of war-weariness and misery, of exhaustion and hunger at the end of the “Great War”, but also of their dreams for a better tomorrow. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anton Holzer (b. 1964) holds a Ph.D. in the history of photography and is a historian, publicist, and curator. He also is editor of the photo-historical journal FOTOGESCHICHTE.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
4
Preußen bewegt die Welt Der Siebenjährige Krieg
HISTORY
When Prussia Shook the World: The Seven Years’ War, 1756–63
by Klaus-Jürgen Bremm September 2017 380 pages, 19 b/w images, maps ISBN 978-3-8062-3577-7
In the minds of many Germans today, the Seven Years’ War is first and foremost associated, still, with a triumphant Prussian victory that earned Frederick II of Prussia his epithet “the Great.” In fact, however, this was a war waged on three continents: in Europe, North America, and in India. All the major European powers were implicated in this seven-year-long struggle for dominance. At war’s end, the European balance of power had shifted significantly: Prussia had joined the ranks of Britain, France, Austria, and Russia, and had become the fifth great European power. While Klaus-Jürgen Bremm paints a vast panorama of mid-eighteenth-century warfare, recounting, among others, the great Battles of Kolin, Kundersdorf, and Leuthen, he does not neglect to point out the far-reaching political context of that struggle, nor its manifold ramifications. Bremm’s main objective, however, is to show that the Seven Years’ War was by no means a “Prussian war” or even an exclusively Central European affair, but rather – to quote Winston Churchill – “the first world war” in history. ABOUT THE AUTHOR BACKLIST
Klaus-Jürgen Bremm is a military historian and publicist. Among his most recent book publications have been “The Age of Industrialization” (2014) and “The Battle of Waterloo, 1815” (2015).
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
5
Wenn der Staat tötet Eine Geschichte der Todesstrafe
HISTORY
When States Kill: A History of Capital Punishment
by Helmut Ortner July 2017 236 pages, 17 b/w images ISBN 978-3-8062-3597-5
“Thou shalt not kill!” – this Biblical commandment is supposed to apply world-wide, in every culture, and prohibits the gravest human crime. Whenever a state sees fit to include in its constitution the death penalty, killing is legitimized by law. This is the fundamental self-contradiction Helmut Ortner traces in his essai engagé about the past and present of capital punishment in the Western world. Ortner describes different types of death penalty, from the Roman carnifex to the lethal injections applied in American death chambers. When were executions meant to deter, when were they meant to bring about atonement? From the fear of God to fearing the State via faith in technology or humanist ideals – the history of capital punishment has always been a history of penal reform. When States Kill delineates the strategies that have been used, historically, to legitimize capital punishment, while giving ample room to a discussion of present-day positions on the matter – an approach more than appropriate with a view to current debates around reintroductions of the death penalty, for instance in Turkey. This is what makes Ortner’s book historically profound and highly relevant at the same time. When States Kill is meant to raise awareness and enlighten – especially in times like these. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BACKLIST
Helmut Ortner (b. 1950) is a journalist, media manager, and publicist. He has published numerous books, several of them on the history and theory of capital punishment, which have been translated into twelve languages to date.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
6
Krieg im Mittelalter by Damals
HISTORY
War in the Middle Ages
October 2017 128 pages, 120 color images, maps ISBN 978-3-8062-3637-8
Supposedly chock-full of noble knights and heroic tournaments, the middle ages have, time and again, been subject to relentless romanticizing. The contributors to this volume, all of them renowned specialists in medieval history, present quite a different view of the period. Taking into account the natural limitations and logistical difficulties of medieval warfare, they explain contemporaries’ motives for going to war and present common strategies for legitimizing violence in an era shaped by Christian beliefs. In their vividly descriptive essays, the authors provide insight into the reality of medieval sieges as well as into the equipment and weaponry carried by their participants. Select campaigns, such as the conquest of England and the crusades to the Holy Land, are recounted by way of example. Not least, they show how chivalric warfare came to its end under the twin pressures of technological and social changes towards modernity. All told, this handsome volume presents a colourful panorama of more than 800 years of medieval military history. Contains contributions by Gerd Althoff, Nikolas Jaspert, Malte Prietzel, Jürgen Sarnowski, Bernd Schneidmüller, and others.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
7
Technik in der Antike by Brigitte Cech
HISTORY
Technology in the Ancient World
August 2017 256 pages, 134 b/w images, 18 tables ISBN 978-3-8062-3639-2
Already in classical antiquity, technological innovation reached impressive levels, as Greek and Roman engineers combined masterful invention with skilled, precise handiwork. The structural remains of this golden age of engineering may still be admired today – take, for example, the Pantheon in Rome, whose dome has remained, for close to 2000 years, the world’s largest unsupported dome, or the Pont du Gard in Southern France – built “just” for water supply, but unparalleled in both its functionality and beauty. In this standard work on ancient technology, Brigitte Cech, a renowned historian of technology, presents the fundamental aspects of Greek and Roman technology in a clear, nuts-and-bolts manner. Her use of specific examples makes this book accessible even to those without an engineering background. A wealth of graphics and reconstruction drawings offer further aids to understanding. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BACKLIST
Brigitte Cech (b. 1956) is a freelance archeologist who received her postdoctoral degree in mining and industrial archeology from the Institute of Pre- and Early History at the University of Vienna. She is also a Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
8
Dacia Felix Das antike Rumänien im Brennpunkt der Kulturen
HISTORY
Dacia Felix: Ancient Romania at the Crossroads of Cultures
By Kai Brodersen October 2017 240 pages, 25 color images, maps ISBN 978-3-8053-5059-4
The Dacians were a tenacious people from the Western Black Sea region, the area of present-day Romania. When he tried to conquer them, Philip II, father to Alexander the Great, failed miserably, and even the Romans struggled to cope with their Dacian adversaries before finally managing to establish the province of Dacia. While their triumph was short-lived, its consequences are visible to this day. Kai Brodersen, one of the leading authorities on ancient Dacia and the Dacians, presents a panorama ranging from the pre-Roman settlement of the Dacian homeland to the Dacian Wars and beyond the region’s brief period as the Roman province of Dacia. Brodersen also takes into account the handling of Romania’s Roman heritage in modern times and the effects of the intensive Romanization of the entire region. In his treatment, which is eminently readable, centre stage is given to an impressive array of source texts and other evidence, among them not only documents and archaeological findings, but also Trajan’s Column with its one-of-a-kind frieze depictions of the Roman conquest of the Dacians. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kai Brodersen (b. 1958) has been Professor of Ancient History at the University of Erfurt, where he also served as President of the University, 2008–2014.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
9
Tatorte der Vergangenheit Archäologie und Forensik By Wilfried Rosendahl and Madea Burkhard
ANCIENT SCIENCE
Crime Scenes of the Distant Past: Archaeology and Forensics
October 2017 144 pages, 120 color images ISBN 978-3-8062-3645-3
On our TV screens, they’re quite omnipresent: forensic pathologists who trace every last piece of evidence at a crime scene, using state-of-the-art equipment and scientific analyses. Few people know, however, that archaeologists, too, use forensic methods in order to reconstruct events that took place long ago. Editors Burkhard Madea and Wilfried Rosendahl have gathered a group of experts in the field who present the latest developments in forensic medicine and its archaeological application. Ranging from Ötzi the Iceman to the Medici, this volume gathers famous and intriguing “cases” and covers a a wide spectrum of methods and approaches ranging from toxicology to facial reconstruction and from postmortems to forensic ballistics. Each topic is introduced by way of a significant case study drawn from current archaeological research, and illustrated in a way that is accessible to a lay audience. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Wilfried Rosendahl is head curator of the “Archaeology and World Cultures” department as well as director of the Curt Engelhorn Centre for Art and Art History at Reiss Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim.
Burkhard Madea is head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bonn. He has published a number of books on forensics for both specialists and the general public.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
10
Als der Mensch die Kunst erfand Eiszeithöhlen der Schwäbischen Alb By Nicholas J. Conard and Claus-Joachim Kind
ANCIENT SCIENCE
The First Artists: Ice-Age Caves of the Swabian Alps
September 2017 192 pages, 160 color images, 4 maps ISBN
More than 40,000 years ago, modern humans migrated into Europe. Archaeological findings that can be attributed to Homo sapiens have been made in several places, but some of the most spectacular hail from the ice-age caves of the Swabian Alps in south-western Germany. Especially in the valleys of the rivers Ach and Lone, archaeologists have been very successful in securing stunning objects which had been buried deep beneath the cave floors, which is why those caves have been placed on the tentative list to become UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is here that the oldest evidence of mobile art have been found. Of particular interest are the “Venus of Hohle Fels” (the oldest depiction of the human – female! – form ever found) and the Löwenmensch (‘lion-man’) ivory figurine found at Stadel Cave. A variety of elaborate small figurines carved from mammoth-ivory depicts the full spectrum of the European animal kingdom of the period: mammoths, wisents, horses, cave lions and cave bears, an aquatic bird in full flight. Also among the finds are the oldest musical instruments known worldwide: flutes made from mammoth ivory and bird bone. What can those findings tell us about their makers and the world they lived in? Nicholas J. Conard and Claus-Joachim Kind, both of them archaeologists and veteran excavation directors, take readers to the world of the last Ice Age, presenting and explaining those breath-taking finds. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Nicholas J. Conard (b. 1961) is head of the Institute of Prehistory and Quarternary Ecology at the Department of Pre- and Early History and Mediaeval Archaeology at the University of Tübingen, Swabia.
Claus-Joachim Kind (b. 1953) is head of the division of stone-age archaeology at the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments of BadenWürttemberg at Esslingen, Swabia.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
11
Die Wikinger und ihre Schiffe By Sunhild Kleingärtner October 2017 112 pages, 120 color images ISBN 978-3-8062-3543-2
ANCIENT SCIENCE
The Vikings and Their Ships
Ships are more than just another means of transport. They are expressive of economic and power political interests. Their function is, at the same time, representative and establishing a collective identity. Especially during the time of the Vikings, ships played a central role, shaping and advancing whole societies. Ships formed the basis for the Vikings’ far-flung trading network, which extended south to the Mediterranean and even across the Atlantic. The impressive remains of those ships attest to the fundamentally maritime character of Viking society. In her new book, Sunhild Kleingärtner sets out to answer two big questions: What was the fundamental function and meaning of Viking ships? And what is the value of their archaeological investigation for today’s society? Her account is based on archaeological findings that will have readers marvel at the fascinating world of the Vikings. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
An archaeologist by training, Sunhild Kleingärtner (b. 1974) has been head curator and director of the German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven, and Professor of Naval History and Maritime Archaeology at the University of Bremen.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
12
Etrusker Antike Hochkultur im Schatten Roms By Werner Rutishauser, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
ANCIENT SCIENCE
The Etruscans: Ancient Civilization in the Shadow of Rome
September 2017 320 pages, 291 color and 12 b/w images ISBN 978-3-8053-5115-7
Rome was no more than an obscure village when the Etruscans reached the height of their cultural development in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. Owing to rich deposits of metal ores, a thriving agriculture, and a flourishing economic and cultural exchange with other cultures in the Mediterranean, the Etruscans rose to become of the most innovative and influential civilizations of the ancient world. In an exhibition at the Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, the vast panorama of Etruscan culture was presented to a wide audience; the present book preserves the achievement of that exhibition. Jewelry, vases, and sculptures, as well beautifully designed objects of everyday use, tell of a highly developed culture of feasts and festivals, of extensive trade relations and soothsaying traditions, funerary cults and ancestral worship. The Schaffhausen Museum zu Allerheiligen is home to the Ebnöther Collection, a treasure trove of Etruscan culture. This catalogue presents all 235 Etruscan objects in the collection – many of them published here for the first time –, and complements them with a succinct introduction to Etruscan culture. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Werner Rutishauser read art history, classical archaeology, and church history at the University of Zurich. Apart from work in his native Switzerland, excavation campaigns have led him to Italy, Egypt, Turkey, Peru, and Mexico.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
13
Antike Bilderwelten Was griechische Vasen erzählen
ANCIENT SCIENCE
As Told on a Grecian Urn: The Visual Imagination of the Ancient Greeks
By Frank Hildebrandt September 2017 160 pages, 144 color images ISBN 978-3-8053-5109-6
Apart from ruins and sculpture, nothing says “Greek antiquity” like the richly decorated painted vases we all know and cherish. With hundreds of thousands of extant specimens, they are widely represented in museums around the globe, constituting one of the most important types of archaeological source. Greek vases, and especially the images they carry, provide insight into the pantheon, the myths, religious ideas, and cultic rites of their makers, as well as their everyday lives of war, athletics, child-rearing and conviviality. They may be considered a guide to the evolution of Greek art through the centuries, while at the same time casting light on local traditions and preferences. But the same vases may, at the same time, be considered as the virtuoso masterpieces of individual artists or specific workshops. Or we may consider them, quite simply, as a lavishly illustrated picture book of ancient Greek myths and life. Frank Hildebrandt’s book offers a readily accessible introduction to the art and history of Greek vase painting. At the same time, this volume presents the Zimmermann Collection, one of the most exquisite private collections of Greek ceramics in Germany. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Frank Zimmermann read classical archaeology and ancient history, as well as pre- and early history and mediaeval archaeology, at the universities of Tübingen and Freiburg/Breisgau. Since 2008, he has been head of classical collections at the Museum für Kunst of Gewerbe (Museum of Art and Industry), Hamburg.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
14
Antike Bilderwelten Was griechische Vasen erzählen
ANCIENT SCIENCE
Seeking, in His Soul, the Art of Greece ...: The Life and Times of Johann Joachim Winckelmann
By Friedrich-Wilhelm von Hase November 2017 144 pages, 100 color images ISBN 978-3-8053-5095-2
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was born in Stendal on 9 December 1717 and died in Trieste on 8 June 1768, is widely considered the father of classical archaeology and modern art historical scholarship alike. His life’s work – accomplished in just over fifty years – has influenced many generations of scholars, artists, and even politicians. To an extent that should by no means be underestimated, Winckelmann has influenced, and continues to influence, the way in which we look at classical antiquity. One of his many talents was to build a network of contacts that covered all of Europe – and a new, a European view of Winckelmann, his contemporaries, and his lasting influence, are at the centre of this book. Its authors, a group of renowned experts, shine a light on the various aspects of the “Winckelmann myth”, rendering comprehensible the lasting fascination of this astonishing man. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Friedrich-Wilhelm von Hase read classical archaeology, pre- and early history, ethnology, and ancient history. The focus of his scholarly work is on the pre- and early history of ancient Italy, the central European Hallstatt Period, and etruscology.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
15
Mykenische Paläste Kunst und Kultur By Josef Fischer
ANCIENT SCIENCE
Mycenaean Palaces: Art and Culture
August 2017 144 pages, 100 images ISBN 978-3-8053-4963-5
In the late Bronze Age, the culture of the Mycenaeans thrived on the Greek mainland as well as on the islands of the Aegaean. This first advanced civilisation in European history flourished especially during the so-called “palatial period” (c. 1400–1200 BCE), named for the “palaces” of independent principalities which dominated the political – as well as the actual – landscape of their time. In the present volume, the history, archaeology, and culture of those palaces are considered using a type of source material that, until now, had been neglected: namely, findings regarding their architectural development and the facilities they provided, as well as their function as princely residences and administrative, economic, and religious centres. Also discussed are their immediate surroundings, such as the nearby settlements affiliated with the palaces, their necropoles, and the Mycenaean system of roads and pathways that connected them all. At the end of this lavishly illustrated book, a brief look the post-palatial use of the former palace grounds opens a perspective into more recent times. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Josef Fischer (b. 1976) read ancient history and classical archaeology, obtaining a doctorate in ancient history. His research focus is on the early history of Greece, Greek social and economic history, as well as on the history of ancient Asia Minor.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
16
Newtons Apfel 50 Meilensteine der Wissenschaft By Alexander Mäder
NATURAL SCIENCES
Newton’s Apple: Fifty Milestones in the History of Science
November 2017 128 pages, 60 color images ISBN 978-3-8062-3586-9
Over the last five hundred years, the natural sciences have had considerable influence on our thinking and our conception of the world. However, it was a long and rocky road that brought us where we are today; and while there were triumphs and revolutions, it cannot be denied that there have also been detours and dead ends. Yet the question remains – how did, how could the amazing discoveries of modern science come about? And which of those many discoveries should be counted among the greatest moments in the history of science, moments which brought decisive contributions to scientific progress? By reference to fifty milestones on that long and rocky road to the present, the contributors to this volume tell the story of modern science. From the discovery of the Gulf Stream to the astronomical revolution precipitated by Copernicus and Galileo, from Darwin’s theory of evolution to the sequencing and deciphering of the human genome and the triumph of the world wide web, they include all the significant developments, explaining how scientific and technological progress came about and our present-day view of the world, which is eminently scientific, was born. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexander Mäder read philosophy, psychology, and physics at the University of Heidelberg and obtained his doctorate from the University of Bielefeld. He has been working as a science journalist ever since.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
17
Was ist Popmusik?
MUSIC
What Is Pop Music?
By Timo Hoyer / Carsten Kries / Dirk Stederoth November 2017 240 pages ISBN 978-3-534-26870-2
As a complex phenomenon, pop music has prompted heated debate in philosophy, musicology, literary and media studies, as well as in the social sciences. Still, a number of fundamental questions about pop music have not been adequately answered: what are the criteria for demarcation between pop and other forms of music, e.g. classical music, jazz, or different kinds of folk music? Is there “popular music” in all genres, or does the term designate a genre of its own? Is it characterised by specific kinds of content? Does pop music demand a certain style of performance? Is it primarily a social or a musical phenomenon? Are there aesthetic criteria that would allow to demarcate between “good” and “bad” pop music? How should we assess the influence the audience and the entertainment industry have on its development? Those are only some of the questions answered by the contributors to the present volume, whose interdisciplinary and multi-faceted essays examine the nature of pop music, shedding light on the full range of its colourful diversity. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Timo Hoyer read paedagogy, philosophy, and German literature at the University of Frankfurt/Main. Since 2013, he has been adjunct professor of paedagogy at Karlsruhe University of Education. Carsten Kries read history, psychology, musicology, sociology, and philosophy at the universities of Göttingen and Kassel. He has been on the teaching staff of the Institute of Philosophy, University of Kassel, since 2014. Dirk Stederoth read philosophy and sociology at the University of Kassel, where he also obtained his doctorate with a thesis on Hegel’s “Philosophy of Subjective Spirit”. He has been a research assistant at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Kassel, since 2014.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
18
By Jochen Schubert October 2017 340 pages, 29 b/w images ISBN 978-3-8062-3616-3
MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES
Heinrich Böll
Time and again, the writer Heinrich Böll confronted Germans with their recent past. Already during his lifetime, the author of And Where Were You, Adam?, The Clown, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum was considered something of a moral authority. Böll himself resisted such attributions; he did not want to be the “conscience of the nation” impersonated. This tension should be reason enough to reassess Böll’s motifs, themes, and passions, and to shed new light on the complex relationship between his literary work and his social commitment. Jochen Schubert was the first scholar to be given unrestricted access to Heinrich Böll’s papers and literary estate. In his new book on the Nobel laureate, he paints the portrait of a resistant artist and engaged intellectual. Böll’s efforts of coming to terms with the Nazi past, his vociferous denunciation of restorative tendecies in post-war Germany, as well as his support of the peace movement, all serve to illustrate the author’s influence at some of the turning points of German social and cultural history since 1945. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jochen Schubert read German literature at the University of Bonn, where he also obtained his doctorate. Since 1995, he has been on the staff of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. His extensive research into the biography and work of Heinrich Böll has resulted in numerous publications.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
19
Dichterhäuser Mit Fotografien von Achim Bednorz By Bodo Plachta and Achim Bednorz August 2017 272 pages, 157 color images ISBN 978-3-8062-3612-5
MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES
Homes of the Poets
Poets and other writers live in the bustle of cities, in tranquil small towns, or in idyllic villages – but wherever they live, their houses are highly individual creations. They not only form the centre of successful writing careers but tell of difficult circumstances, politically charged times, and – not least – the travails of writing. For this book, Bodo Plachta and Achim Bednorz visited writers’ houses all over Germany and some neighbouring regions. They paid a visit to the homes of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in Wolfenbüttel, Theodor Fontane in Neuruppin, and Anna Seghers in Berlin. Their tour also included Thomas Bernhard’s farmhouse in Ohlsdorf, Upper Austria, and the house Friedrich Dürrenmatt called his “writer’s workshop” in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Bednorz’s brilliant photography captures literal mountains of books, and brings to life typewriters, studies, and salons. In the end, this book does not only grant fascinating insight into the private lives of famous authors, but may also teach us about what Hermann Hesse called “the art of living beautifully.” ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bodo Plachta is Professor of German Literature at the University of Osnabrück. Achim Bednorz has been working as a free-lance photographer for decades. He specialises in architectural and art historical photography.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
20
August Wilhelm Schlegel Romantiker und Kosmopolit By Jochen Strobel August 2017 200 pages, 42 b/w images ISBN 978-3-8062-3613-2
MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES
The Cosmopolitan Romantic: The Life and Times of August Wilhelm Schlegel
Today, August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845) is best known as a translator of Shakespeare into German. During his lifetime, however, the urbane polymath was the most influential of the German Romantic on a European scale. Jochen Strobel’s biography is based on the most recent research and presents Schlegel, the philologist and critic, in the full range of his diverse roles: as a successful scholar and professor at the University of Bonn, among whose students were such figures as Karl Marx and Heinrich Heine, and as the long-time companion of Madame de Staël. During Germany’s Wars of Liberation, Schlegel, a patriot, went into politics. Schlegel the private man, by contrast, had long been elusive. For this new biography, Jochen Strobel has undertaken in-depth analysis of Schlegel’s private letters (published for the first time only recently), which enables him to present, for the first time, August Schlegel, the responsible, bourgeois family man. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jochen Strobel is Professor of German Literature at the University of Marburg.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
21
Reiseliteratur By Andreas Keller and Winfried Siebers October 2017 160 pages, 10 b/w images ISBN 978-3-534-26853-5
MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES
Travel Literature
Travel literature has been written since ancient times, but has experienced a veritable “boom” since the beginning of early modernity. Social, medial, and academic changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries only served to reinforce this trend. This introduction to the genre covers texts that were written before, during, or after travel, including fat-based guidebooks, impressionistic journal entries or letters as well as aesthetically ambitious, literary travel books. History, theory, and interpretation of this culturally significant genre are considered equally. A lucid introduction to the methodically sound interpretation of travel literature is complemented by a number of exemplary analyses of Georg Forster’s “Voyage around the World”, Heinrich Heine’s “Travel Pictures”, and Lou Andreas-Salomé’s “Journal of a Journey with Rainer Maria Rilke”. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Andreas Keller is a senior research associate at the University of Potsdam, where he also obtained his doctorate in early modern literary studies. Winfried Siebers is a research associate at the Institute for Early Modern Cultural History at the University of Osnabrück, where he also obtained his doctorate.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
22
Hans Jonas Für Freiheit und Verantwortung By Jürgen Nielsen-Sikora
PHILOSOPHY
Hans Jonas: Liberty and Responsibility
August 2017 343 pages, 24 b/w images ISBN 978-3-534-74319-3
The philosopher Hans Jonas (1903–1993) was one of the most prominent among German Jewish émigrés and a leading public intellectual of the twentieth century. His academic roots lay in the philosophical milieu of Weimar Germany; his 1928 doctoral thesis was advised by Martin Heidegger. But then, the National Socialists’ advent to power disrupted the young philosopher’s promising academic career. Jonas, whose mother was murdered at Auschwitz in 1942, served in the British army during World War II, then with the Israeli military in the Israeli-Arab War of 1948. Afterwards, he resumed his academic career in Canada and the United States – and published his magnum opus, The Imperative of Responsibility (1979), which laid the foundations for current debates in environmental and future ethics. With this volume firmly grounded in archival research, Jürgen Sikora has written the first comprehensive biography of this remarkable man. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jürgen Nielsen-Sikora (b. 1973) is a senior research associate in modern history at the University of Hildesheim and head of the Hans Jonas Institute at the University of Siegen.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
23
Handbuch der Medienphilosophie By Gerhard Schweppenhäuser
PHILOSOPHY
Media Philosophy: A Handbook
November 2017 288 pages ISBN 978-3-534-26940-2
Our modern world, which is dominated by the media, calls for a philosophy equipped to deal with this circumstance. As a discipline, media philosophy is quite young, but is expanding rapidly. It developed out of the terminological reflection of new media; philosophically speaking, it focuses on the questions and issues of media theory and practice. In this timely book, Gerhard Schweppenhäuser has colected the most influential concepts and theories of media philosophy. In an introductory chapter, the foundations and peculiarities of the discipline are outlined. In the following chapters, individual topics in media philosophy are treated by an array of experts in the field. Contains contributions by Mike Sandbothe, Stephan Günzel, Lambert Wiesing, and others. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gerhard Schweppenhäuser is Professor of the Theory of Design, Communication, and Media at the Faculty of Design, Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
24
Philosophische Grundbegriffe der Naturwissenschaften
PHILOSOPHY
Philosophical Concepts and the Natural Sciences
By Dieter Radaj October 2017 208 pages ISBN 978-3-534-26941-9
Philosophical and scientific thought are connected by a number of shared concepts. These convey notions that transcend sense perception and make possible the kind of abstract thinking which, in the sciences, has led to mathematical theorems, while natural philosophy remained language-bound. In addition, there is the use of those concepts and terms in everyday speech. This book focuses on complementary pairs of concepts: being and becoming, space and time, causality and correlation, chance and necessity. Further discussion treats the notion of natural laws in physics and biology as well as the higher “forms of determination” applying to the realm of the animate world. Throughout, Dieter Radaj’s account is based in a contemporary ontology and pays particular attention to the concepts of modern physics, the principles of evolution and molecular genetics, as well as the evolution of the cosmos in space and time. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dieter Radaj (b. 1935) received his doctoral and postdoctoral degrees from the Technical University of Brunswick before working, in a managerial capacity, in research, teaching, and industry. He has authored a number of specialist books as well as several books on current issues of theoretical and practical philosophy.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
25
Wie objektiv ist Wissenschaft? By Ulrich Lüke and Georg Souvignier
PHILOSOPHY
Is Science Really Objective?
August 2017 199 pages, 18 b/w images ISBN 978-3-534-74322-3
It is the general opinion of most experts that scientific judgments differ from everyday judgments first and foremost by virtue of their objectivity. It would be a misunderstanding, however, to claim that scientists were dealing only with “the facts of the matter,” ignoring any kind of preconception. Research motivation and guiding questions, methodology and language, presuppositions and even – sometimes – religious beliefs may also influence their findings. This does not mean that the sciences are, per se, unreliable; but it suggests that the continual reflection of the preconditions of knowledge is part of the “core business” of any respectable scientific research. In the present volume, the disciplines concerned get a chance to speak for themselves, as renowned scholars from different fields reflect upon the presuppositions and ingrained ways of thinking that hold sway in their own subjects. Individual chapters treat the following disciplines: biology, chemistry, climatology/ecology, cosmology, mathematics, physics, psychology, sociology, and theology. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Georg Souvignier (b. 1963) read physics at the Technical University of Aachen, where he also obtained his doctorate in physics. Since 1993, he has been teaching at the Episcopal Academy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen. Ulrich Lüke (b. 1951) trained as a biologist and a theologian before serving as Professor of Systematic Theology at the Technical University of Aachen. He now is Director of the Görres Society’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Research.
Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
26
Man ist dann mal weg Über das Pilgern
THEOLOGY
On Pilgrimage
By Hermann-Josef Frisch September 2017 240 pages, 130 color images ISBN 978-3-8062-3625-5
What happens when people set out, looking for God and – possibly – finding themselves? When they set out, that is, not in a metaphorical sense, but literally “hitting the road”, on foot, travelling light, a pilgrim’s staff in hand? The appeal of going on a pilgrimage persists to this day, and even people who do not consider themselves religious are fascinated by the idea of a fresh departure for new experiences on the road. As a globetrotter in the matter of religion, Hermann-Josef Frisch knows the pilgrimage traditions of the world’s great religions like few others. From first-hand experience, he tells of how life “along the way”, with its rites, rhythms, and austerities, may sharpen one’s focus on what is truly important, and may open up a space for leisurely encounters with fellow pilgrims and others. At the same time, his book presents a masterful overview of different pilgrimage traditions, with stunning photographs that take readers on a journey to the most famous pilgrimage sites around the globe. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hermann-Josef Frisch is a retired parish priest and a former Lecturer in Religious Education at the University of Bonn. He has written or contributed to more than 200 books on religious education, pastoral care, adult education in theology, and religious studies. On more than fifty journeys to Asia, he has explored Buddhist culture and traditions.
BACKLIST
Rights sold to China Contact: Dr. Christina Kerz | kerz@wbg-wissenverbindet.de WBG ▪ Hindenburgstr. 40 ▪ 64295 Darmstadt, Germany ▪ Telephone: +49 6151 3308 159
27