Recalling and/or Repressing German Marxism? The Case of Ernst Fraenkel

Content Provider	Scilit
Author	Scheuerman, William E.
Copyright Year	2021
Description	I spent a few unseasonably hot summer days in 1996 digging around in the German Federal Archives in Koblenz for what later became a lengthy essay on Ernst Fraenkel (1898–1975), the neglected German socialist political and legal thinker. I still recall struggling to justify my efforts not simply as an historian of ideas but also as a political theorist who, at least in principle, was expected to make systematic contributions to contemporary debates. The problem was that Fraenkel had focused his acumen on investigating liberal democratic instability and German fascism, matters that did not seem directly pertinent to a political and intellectual constellation in which political scientists were celebrating democracy's “third wave.” With Tony Blair and Bill Clinton touting Third Way politics, and many former dictatorships seemingly on a secure path to liberal democracy, Fraenkel's preoccupations seemed dated. Even though Judith Shklar had noted, as late as 1989, that “anyone who thinks that fascism in one guise or another is dead and gone ought to think again,” political pundits and scholars in the mid-1990s typically assumed that capitalist liberal democracy's future was secure. When I returned to the US and described my research to colleagues, they responded, unsurprisingly, politely but without much enthusiasm.
Related Links	https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/515959A8BA944D360F2779049246E5B1/S1479244321000172a.pdf/div-class-title-recalling-and-or-repressing-german-marxism-the-case-of-ernst-fraenkel-div.pdf
ISSN	14792443
e-ISSN	14792451
DOI	10.1017/s1479244321000172
Journal	Modern Intellectual History
Language	English
Publisher	Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publisher Date	2021-03-26
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Modern Intellectual History Liberal Democracy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Book Review
Subject	Philosophy Sociology and Political Science History Cultural Studies