Mark Edmundson teaches at the University of Virginia, where he is University Professor. A prizewinning scholar, he has published a number of works of literary and cultural criticism, including Why Read?, Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida; and Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference. He has also written for such publications as the New Republic, the New York Times Magazine, the Nation, and Harper's, where he is a contributing editor.
"In so rivetingly tying Freud's investigation of the subconscious with the Nazis' unleashing of the destructive powers of the id, Edmundson gives us the tools for looking at our own cultural icons...In this and his other books, Edmundson provides a great teaching guide to seeing the world afresh." --Boston Globe "Superb...Without elevating [Freud] to the status of a secular godhead--indeed, by underlining his limitations--Mr. Edmundson presents us with a figure who still has the power to rouse us from our complacency, whose stern, exacting eyes continue to remind us what we are apt to forget: that we must work to change our lives." --New York Sun "Brilliantly buttressed plea for reconsideration of Freud as philosopher and shrink." --Kirkus Reviews
Expanding on his 2006 New York Times Magazine article, "Freud and the Fundamentalist Urge," Edmundson develops his thesis about the lure of powerful, authoritarian leaders. He begins in 1938 Vienna on the eve of Hitler's invasion and ends less than two years later, when Freud died in London. The crux of the book comes at its very end, where Edmundson, a contributing editor at Harper's, discusses Moses and Monotheism (published in 1939), arguing for Freud's profound insights into the rise of a totalitarian, paternalistic leader like Hitler. In fact, Edmundson's aim seems even grander: to revive Freud's legacy as a sage of human nature in an intellectual climate that has moved beyond many of his ideas. But the earlier parts of the volume are thin. Edmundson adds nothing in recounting the details of Freud's life, and those facts are repeated over and over. There are some moments of sharp insight when Edmundson veers away from the biographical and delves into his own critical ideas, but these would have been better served in an article rather than incorporated into a narrative of danger, escape, illness and death. (Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
"In so rivetingly tying Freud's investigation of the subconscious with the Nazis' unleashing of the destructive powers of the id, Edmundson gives us the tools for looking at our own cultural icons...In this and his other books, Edmundson provides a great teaching guide to seeing the world afresh." --Boston Globe "Superb...Without elevating [Freud] to the status of a secular godhead--indeed, by underlining his limitations--Mr. Edmundson presents us with a figure who still has the power to rouse us from our complacency, whose stern, exacting eyes continue to remind us what we are apt to forget: that we must work to change our lives." --New York Sun "Brilliantly buttressed plea for reconsideration of Freud as philosopher and shrink." --Kirkus Reviews
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