The Visionaries

March 1, 2023

Following up the rave-reviewed Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy, about philosophy in the post-World War I era, Eilenberger investigates Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand, and Simone Weil to show how philosophy unfolded before and during World War II in The Visionaries. Prepub Alert.

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May 15, 2023
Eilenberger (Time of the Magicians), founding editor of Philosophie Magazin, weaves the lives and work of four female philosophers as they grappled with notions of freedom and individuality in this illuminating history. Focusing on the years between WWI and WWII, Eilenberger explores how Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand, and Simone Weil struggled with gendered social expectations, financial hardship, and religious persecution as they interrogated “the possible meaning of... existence” and “the importance of other people for one’s own life.” Among other intriguing parallels, Eilenberger links Rand’s contention that “nothing could be more morally fatal than the will to stand by others first and foremost,” with Weil’s belief that the “rhetoric of the collective and of collectivization” was “the clearest expression of an ideologically embellished” oppression. Yet, their conclusions often differed. Rand’s quest “to establish capitalism as the only true expression of a moral coexistence,” for example, stands in contrast to Arendt’s conviction that “self-discovery could only occur through other people.” Though Eilenberger could sometimes weave the narrative’s various threads together more seamlessly, his energetic, multilayered group portrait reveals that these celebrated thinkers were real people whose ideas, as contradictory as they may seem, developed in response to shared social or political circumstances. This fascinates.

May 15, 2023
An exploration of the philosophical foundations of four of the 20th century's most controversial and influential writers. Following his critically acclaimed 2020 book, Time of the Magicians, German author and philosopher Eilenberger holds to a similar template in this group biography of writers Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand, and Simone Weil, interweaving the trajectories of their lives and work from 1933 to 1943. These were harrowing years in particular for Beauvoir, Weil, and German-born Arendt, as the war was gradually unfolding throughout Europe and the German occupation of France was impacting all three. Rand had moved to the U.S. in 1926. With the same acumen as he displayed in Magicians, Eilenberger draws compelling narratives around these women's lives while ably synthesizing much of their core thinking. Their ideas were germinating during this period, informing their more significant output in years to come. The increasingly controversial writing of Arendt, Rand, and Beauvoir would prove particularly relevant in shaping sociopolitical discourse up through the later years of the 20th century--and even to the present day. While Eilenberger frequently argues the case for Weil's greatness, her ideas, increasingly inclined toward religious and mystical matters, may feel less tangibly relevant to contemporary American readers. She is somewhat of an outlier within this ambitious group of legacy-minded writers. While never quite providing a cohesive rationale for joining these four disparate writers together, Eilenberger offers solid insight into a center-minded way of thinking applicable to each. "The philosophizing person," he writes, "seems to be essentially a pariah of deviant insights, the prophet of a life lived rightly....They simply experienced themselves as having been placed fundamentally differently in the world from how other people had been. And deep inside they remained certain of who or what the problem needing treatment was: not themselves, but the Others. Possibly, in fact--all the Others." An absorbing, well-grounded study.

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August 1, 2023
Eilenberger follows Time of the Magicians (2020) with another work of intellectual history via group portrait, focusing on four brilliant thinkers whose work challenged and ultimately shaped twentieth-century thought, four women who responded to the political, social, and economic forces that emerged in the wake of WWI. Weil was an idealistic polymath of singular intellect. Her self-abnegation called attention to oppression, but her uncompromising commitment came at a high cost. Alternatively, Rand fled her native Russia determined to live the American Dream. She worked tirelessly to incorporate her philosophy into a narrative structure, and her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged were among the twentieth century's biggest sellers. Arendt absorbed Heidegger and Husserl's phenomenology before establishing her own voice; her The Origins of Totalitarianism remains relevant today. Beauvoir was the intellectual equal to her partner, Jean Paul Sartre, and was key to establishing existentialism as the philosophy du jour in post-war France; her groundbreaking The Second Sex is a foundational feminist text. Eilenberger brilliantly captures the intellectual fervor of this tumultuous time.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.