Known primarily for his dramas, Toller also published several collections of poetry. This edition contains 40 poems from three manuscript archives in Germany and represents Toller's entire unpublished poetic oeuvre. The poems cover Toller's life from 1909 to his imprisonment (1919-1924, from his involvement in the Munich Councils Republic), along with some written after his imprisonment. Earliest poems document an intense love affair from his adolescence which preoccupied him until his participation in the First World War. Another group charts his initial enthusiasm for the war, growing moral doubts, and final rejection. The brutality and degradation of life as a political prisoner in the Weimar Republic is described graphically. This collection provides unique insights into Toller's early life and his development as writer and political figure. Each poem is provided with a prose translation, making the edition accessible to non-specialists. The commentaries place the poems in context, provide explanations of specific biographical references.

In Degeneration and Revolution: Radical Cultural Politics and the Body in Weimar Germany Robert Heynen explores the impact of conceptions of degeneration, exemplified by eugenics and social hygiene, on the social, cultural, and political history of the left in Germany, 1914–33. Hygienic practices of bodily regulation were integral to the extension of modern capitalist social relations, and profoundly shaped Weimar culture. Heynen’s innovative interdisciplinary approach draws on Marxist and other critical traditions to examine the politics of degeneration and socialist, communist, and anarchist responses. Drawing on key Weimar theorists and addressing artistic and cultural movements ranging from Dada to worker-produced media, this book challenges us to rethink conventional understandings of left culture and politics, and of Weimar culture more generally.

Pettit, a specialist in English language and literature before 1525, assumes that readers have at hand and open the first volume, which contains the texts themselves, and so dives into his line-by-line commentary without introduction or explanation. He refers to the texts by entry number rather than page. His 70-page bibliography of works cited and principal works consulted does not duplicate the list of Abbreviations and Signs (Volume One). He does not provide an index. The text is double spaced. The sewn binding and cloth cover are high quality. c. Book News Inc.

In Defense of Modern Music preserves, almost by accident, a private debate between Esteban de Arteaga, philosopher of the arts, and Vincenzo Manfredini, composer, singing teacher, and champion of Italian heroic opera in the 1780s. The text comprises Manfredini's unfavorable review of Arteaga's History of Italian Opera from its Origins to the Present Day, Arteaga's tetchy response, and Manfredini's scornful reply. The Defence plays a unique role in the debate on opera that raged across Europe at the time. Formidable personalities engaged in the argument, theorists and philosophers as much as practical men of the theatre. Arteaga followed in the footsteps of Algarotti, Diderot, Rousseau, and Brown in analyzing the state of opera in the Age of Enlightenment. Their theories were tested by the composers Gluck, Jommelli, and Traetta; librettists including Calzabiti and Coltellini; two leading choreographers, Angiolini and Noverre; and designers such as the Galliari Brothers. The Defence traces the noble ideas and achievements of these significant personalities in a casual, subjective, sometimes chaotic commentary, that vividly recreates the manner of 18th-century argument - sometimes fulsomely servile, elsewhere witty and ironic, descending occasionally to insults. This, the first English translation of the text, presents a unique account of an important 18th-century controversy, while shedding light on the language and manners of the period.