Perkins, Mary Anne

Dr. Mary Anne Perkins is an independent scholar who received her Ph.D. (Theol.) from the University of London. Her published books include Coleridges’s Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1994), Nation and Word (Ashgate, 1999) and Christendom and European Identity (Walter de Gruyter, 2004).

Nationalism Versus Cosmopolitanism in German Thought and Culture 1789-1914

2006 0-7734-5523-X
This book is a contribution to a 21st century understanding of the historical origins of the dual consciousness of national and European identity as they developed within the circles of 19th century German writers, theorists, philosophers, musicians, and artists. Two fundamental factors led to the conception of this book: firstly, the recognition that perceptions of German nationhood have been a crucial factor within European consciousness since long before the existence of Germany as a unified State, and, secondly, an acknowledgement that bitter memories of the two World Wars of the 20th century have sometimes obscured the record of Germany’s vast contribution to European cultural and intellectual history. As a collection of essays, this work portrays these developments against the background of a broad spectrum of German literature, music, philosophy, political criticism, art and architecture, also analyzing French and British reactions to German ideas, providing the reader with a broader intellectual and historical context than would be otherwise possible.