Nietzsche's impact on the world of culture,
philosophy, and the arts is uncontested, but his political thought
remains mired in controversy. By placing Nietzsche back in his
late-nineteenth-century German context, Nietzsche's Great Politics moves
away from the disputes surrounding Nietzsche's appropriation by the
Nazis and challenges the use of the philosopher in postmodern democratic
thought. Rather than starting with contemporary democratic theory or
continental philosophy, Hugo Drochon argues that Nietzsche's political
ideas must first be understood in light of Bismarck's policies, in
particular his "Great Politics," which transformed the international
politics of the late nineteenth century. Nietzsche's Great Politics
shows how Nietzsche made Bismarck's notion his own, enabling him to
offer a vision of a unified European political order that was to serve
as a counterbalance to both Britain and Russia. This order was to be led
by a "good European" cultural elite whose goal would be to encourage
the rebirth of Greek high culture. In relocating Nietzsche's politics to
their own time, the book offers not only a novel reading of the
philosopher but also a more accurate picture of why his political
thought remains so relevant today.
