dream" it argued against the u.s. immigration. we not only hurting our contributions we're going experience a brain drain with the great thinkers forced out of the country. >> is it published simultaneously in english and spanish. they are an english language publishes. >> we're here at book expo america which is the book publishing industry's annual convention in new york city. >> next on booktv jennifer ratner-rosenhagen talks about the impact of friedrich nietzche on the left and the right in the united states inspect is about an hour and fifteen minutes. >> i'm so pleased to welcome my

friend jennifer ratner-rosenhagen in to the new berry this evening. she is the associate professor of history at university of wisconsin madison. she earned her ph.d. of from the university of rod chester. she taught at the university of miami at the history department we were colleagues not so much years ago. friedrich nietzche was pushilied be the university of chicago press. until the book jennifer exams how they found a philosophy home in the writing. the death of god and the challenge, to universal truth have inspired american thinkers. journalists, comeeks, frols fors, poets and others have drawn on him for inspiration we learn in "american nietsche." it has reviewed widely and positively. "new york times" book editor wrote, today is not necessarily the same nietzsche in the past.

the "american nietsche" it show how it is the case. stars correct to praise jennifer's ability to help the readers think more deeply and history about nietzsche and american intellectuals than we have in the pass. it's one of the great diseaseses of the weak. in a -- and space in order to find a thinker to think with. i know, a few individuals who travel through time and space as imaginatively or who are compelling thinkers to think with. we're all in for a real treat this evening. thinking with her.

please welcome jennifer ratner-rosenhagen. thank you, for that lovely introduction. thank you new berry library for hosting tonight's event. and thank you all, of course, for coming out tonight. all right. so it is very fitting that i find myself in chicago talking about nietzsche because it was in chicago in the early' 90 z that i began to read his philosophy. i knew i wanted to go on do graduate work in u.s. intellectual history. like many people interested in ideas was drawn to european thinkers, karl marx, sigmund freud and nietzsche.

i continued to find it intoxication candidating. after all i had gone to graduate school to study american history. i felt compelled to turn back to the american thinkers. i thought it was time to find myself back on american native grounds. in the effort to put nietzsche to the side, i came to discover how difficult it was going to be in american life spes lecial any the american academy. in higher education, newt gingrich philosophy featured prominently monograph, journals, and university courses in all field of the humidities and social sciences. there wasn't a university library or major bookstore that didn't have a nietzsche

section. even as i widened out from the world of the academy. i was soiled in the efforts to move away from nietzsche and move back to my america. even it most carol survey of american culture at the time made it unmistakable the 19th german policy for was a powerful policy for. he was everywhere. image of the brow imposing mush mustache were everywhere. the phases, con sets like power, slave and master morality, were studying our morning papers and our advertisements. nietzsche to be found from contemporary novels as well as our television shows and movies including "the simpson" "fish called wanda" "clueless" and a

few recent shows on, that includes "day after tomorrow" "internal sunshine of the spot less mind" and "sunshine." it made it to broadway too. along the way i discover that nietzsche had inspired food including the nietzsche pops. there is a nietzsche wilt power bar which is the official nutritional supplement of the superman. there's even an nietzsche diet as advertised in the onion in the mid 2000. it lets you eat whatever you fear most. and we even have a nietzsche doll to snuggle with at night. so there was a quirky harmless figure of the material culture. we though know there's the rambo

nietzsche as well. in the early years of the project 16-year-old of mississippi disinfected young man who brandished a nietzsche text in one hand or a gun open or knife in another. it became conventional as we move throughout the 1990 and the 2000 with the 1999 columbine masker and professorsed in the home and more recently the shooting of congresswoman gabrielle giffords at the meet and greet in arizona parking lot last january. trying to move back to american native grounds, move away from nietzsche, going to politickingings was a bad idea. i discovered very quickly that nietzsche is there too. in the address to the jointed seelings 6 congress the first

major address that president george bush gave after the 9/11 attacks he condemned the 9/11 terrorists for their version will to power. but i came to see that nietzsche was not simply a figure of the right, but he was also a figure of the left or the center left depending owrn afternoon are angle of vision. it was many years later i learn in an october of 2008 interview that then candidate barack obama who was asked about the new york thyme about the literary influences would name friedrich nietzche as one of them. he come in contact with nietzsche while an undergraduate at college. i could turn to popular music, again, nietzsche was there as an inspiration. from performers as diverse as marilyn manson. joe any michelle named her cat nietzsche and dedicatedded her

1990 song "man from mars" to him. they explained the nietzsche not the feeling nietzsche meant to her. quote, nietzsche was a hero especially. he gets a bad rap. it's misunderstood. he's a maker of individuals and he was a teacher of teachers, end quote. in case you think it's a curious fluke. turn on the radio to a top 40 station. you will hear kelly clarkson, "stronger" which the lyrics for "stronger" or nietzsche what doesn't kill me it makes me stronger. light rock is not your fair, you prefer rap you can listen for kanye west hit version "stronger" using the nietzsche. let's back up a bit. what was clear from the outside of the project was that newt gingrich had dominating presence

in 20th century american life. it must have been of a relatively recent individual damage. maybe we would look at the -- recent than that. maybe i can trace it to the temper of the '60s americans of coming age struggled with the cold war world and bristled against their parents. and yet in the effort to reclaim my mind for more american thinkers, i was -- let me move back in time and it'll go away. it didn't take long before i started to take note of the nietzsche traces in the american thought. indeed in a text i was reading

while trying to get back to my american native grounds, william james variety of religious experience, benedict's pattern of culture, the paranoid -- lonely crowd all of them had engagements with nietzsche in them. nietzsche under ever bed, not quite. a lot there are a lot of nietzsche under lots of beds. in the effort to back back in time, i was able to start to connect the dots and see how much nietzsche was cropping up. in fact, i was able to question the dots of the turn of the century. it was so intense observers could talk about a nietzsche vote. this was the term used in the beginning of the 20th century. and one comment at a timer put he was, i could not help but ask

the same question the nietzsche commentators i was reading were asking themselves. that is, why? what's the work of an antichristian, antidemocratic, antienlightment thinker doing in a culture like ours? in asking the question, my project was born. why nietzsche and why in america? the time that remains, what i'd like to do is offer some answer to the questions about that nietzsche philosophy has been doing in and for 20th century culture in the united states. my book exams nietzsche long standing impact on 20th century american thought and culture. the diagonal of the universal truths in enlightment rationality and democracy have compelled generation of american toss question the religious

ideals, the moral certainty and the democratic principle. i trace episodes of the history including i'm going name a few, the early 20th century christian commentators use of nietzsche philosophy of. i look at early 20th century literary and political thinkers who turn to the life as an example of the pearls and promises of the free lands intelligent you'll life they hope to inhabit themselves. i look at debate about the nietzsche routes of imperialism and total begannism. i can think of no other policy for who has been blamed for the two world wars. that's nietzsche blamed for both. and i look more recently developing in the american academy of pop already culture the grandfather of postmodernism. many of the names of the exxon at a timers i discuss in the

book are will be familiar to you. their names like jack goldman, george, jose, william jennings brian, lie follow drilling, cornell west and harmed bloom. some were enlighted by the writers and others were mortified. none were indifferent to the implication of the follows if i for the promise of the american life. and yet today, however, i want to looked at different kinds of reader. i want to looked at a different kind of source, and namely i want to look at the fan letters that were written by nietzsche american readers and sent to the nietzsche are chief in germany. i do not so not only because they give us access to quote, unquote average americans often lost or at least overlooked by

intent yule historian. because they signal how and why the philosophy image of the genius became so instrumental in american intellectual life. we see how americans press niche in to service. using him to criticize the shortcoming the moral much their priest an the hollow promises of enchantment. the value of these letters as historical documents and historical sources not philosophical value. one can surely read them for their philosophical merits and shortcomings. but what i want is important is to listen for their historical value. and i think that has nothing to do whether they get nietzsche right or wrong. those kinds of judgments matter but the judgments for another

cay. i think probably another book. not for the history began who interested in using the letters to listen in as it were to people from the past. to listen in to people moral reasoning. to listen in to people's longings and pathology and fears. so that's what i do with these letters is to listen to how people are using nietzsche to make sense of the moral world. and the beauty, i think of doing that is we begin to understand how and why nietzsche goes from being an ab secure thinkers in the 19th century germany to a pop icon in american intellectual life. if book sales are a measurement of -- it was a positive failure. the first work "birth of tragedy."

caused a circle of failed to caught the attention of the broader literary press. it was the beth selling book during his lifetime after that of it pretty much downhill. the essay the first of nietzsche's untimely meditation received some initial attention but quickly faded from view. the works that followed "daybreak." when virtual unnoticed and nietzsche never tired contemplating the prevail of the untimely jen yous. in a throart a friend -- he who let him starve on silence. as he wrote had to wait for applause and couragement consolation where would i be? what would i be? there were certainly moments and periods in my life a robust word of encoursement, a hand

agreement would have been refreshments and it was just then everybody left me in the lunch. a few months later as protacted neglect out of the blue threed a piecer from maryland accept him a lifeline. it's not easy to see. but it's a very old letter from 1881. these things don't reproduce well. this is a letter of 1881. let me read you what you can't read for yourself in translation. perhaps it is a little concerned to you that here in america three people often sit together and allow nietzsche's writing to ed fie them. but i don't see why we shouldn't tell you so once. we are counting on the fact that due to the depth of your thoughts and sublime diction we will never want to read anything else again. we need not merely imagine how

pleased nietzsche was to get the letter. preserved on the backside of the letter in written on the backside of the letter that is now preserved in the nietzsche archive is his handwritten note to self. [speaking in foreign language] the first american letter introduction ho world glory would be literal a better translation the beginning of world. first american letter, beginning of world fame. it seemed the world was awaking to his jen yous. during the next few months silence settled back in. he enjoyed a stretch of productivity. he wrote his networking next work. he was reread, one of favorite policy for. thanks to renewed inspiration used emerson quotation for the

book "open graph." fitting then while i aring the love letter to the american hero a second letter should arrive from the states indeed from the very native ground of the sage of concord. in a letter from boston dated may 29, 1881. a professional vile inist wrote it him, my humble thanks for the benefit i have derived from your work and the wish i long entertained to a possess a likeness of the man i learned to adore for the greatness of his mind and the sincerity of the utterances. now bear in mind that was a translation from german sentences. they are allowed to write longer sentences. it's an elegant sentence. they use the letter also as on occasion to tell nietzsche he had such admiration for an essay he wrote on the untimely meditation that dan as he put it

translated it quote, no less than three times. not so much with a view of publishing feeble reproduction of becoming more intimate with your work. in spite of the effort, the version fell short of the adequate rendition i was glad for the sake of your reputation. i have destroyed it. the memory of exalted moments remain. i'm sure the work was not wasted upon myself. we have no record of niempleg's response. but one suspect that he might have figured the curlture fill seems of germany or unable to recognize the jen yous, perhaps the america that produced the belostled emson might have created a people with ears to hear the untimely message. two letters from america weren't much. given the paltry response to the bringers back at home, it seemed like ab auspicious are beginning. perhaps the dawn of niernlg's

world fame was breaking in the west. mental class in 1889. and then later -- he spent the three years of his life awant to nietzsche archive which was administrate by elizabeth who was the self-appointed literary executor. she administrated in her death in 1935. by the time the fan letters arrived, however, nietzsche was totally unaware of them. the days of intellectual were over so was the ability to read,

write, or even rejt he was once an avid reader. on the own, the letters from american families cannot tell us much. when we read them with the letters that started arriving in the immediate years following his death, can see they rein deed a fore taste of the seize to come. the concession of steam four are repeated in numerous times. who achanged the way they thought about themselves in the moral words. they wrote for a picture they wrote for an autograph, they wrote to say thank you and wrote to offer their assistance in spreading the nietzsche gospel in america. these letters might appropriately be -- they just

the snapshot in time. so are no longer than a paragraph or two. in most cases beyond having their names listed in census records or propose up in tiny 0 bitch areas. there's give evidence of the fullness of the letter writers ideas in to the daily conduct. nevertheless, in all of their imperfect fleeting brevity. the letter not only travel in the world, but also how they helped make americans moral worlds anew. the fan letter suggest to me as an intellectual historian that sometimes in order to behold a

large picture format in intelligent yule life we have to start small. given nietzsche's increased presence in intellectual life commentators, echoed the sentiment of one observer put it he was quote, in the air. they wrote about nietzsche as if he were a transcend end spirit. the letters remind us that nietzsche thought was no near vapor. they dpon -- contact with nietzsche's followsfully as transformative they record in the letter the form in which they first encountered him. either as photograph in magazine, a name in a newspaper review, or author for sale at the loam book shop. the letters testify to the ways in which the embodied forms of "issue" take on a psychic value greater than the monetary one.

letter writers commonly refer to the nietzsche books prized possessions. they shared with elizabeth which books they owned, the they borrowed from a friend or relative, and which ones they hoped to procure. many of nietzsche's american admires wrote to nietzsche in the hope of gaining possession of some relic little piece of the man, for them, what was the lived example of the he roaric. the common request was for nietzsche's signature. in big bubble cursive strokes the 12-year-old john wrote in 1926, quote, my mothers love your writers and i'm going read them when i grow up. i read about friedrich nietzche in the story of philosophy and i

loved it. he wented to share nietzsche's autograph with the mom or schoolboy friends with it. he reasoned "that he would, quote, love to have it. if you have one, i could have i would be so happy. end quote. so this is just one of many letters requested autograph. the request for nietzsche stuff pictures, a welcome of his hair, a piece of writing that got broken off. these request for nietzsche stuff shed broader light on the lying he wake end in the american leaders. a man in new york wrote to him about information where he could find a good picture of your great brother. end quote. he informed -- part me, serious

student of the science i drew a small circle of healthy disciples around me. on the philosophy of you anemic eternal. in order fully realize the experience, he and the fellow disciples mowed through a fine art galleries, end quote, on a quest to find a picture picture of nietzsche we can desprate the reading room with a holly real lick. to no avail. hoffman sought to reassure the request was not made lightly. he added on behalf of the friends he wanted to compress gratitude for the suffering. and he wrote, quote, employees allow me to mention we honorable person as true holiness. we are fully aware without you, the life of your brother would have been more a suffering one. and so as a token of the

gratitude. he did what was not uncommon to not simply ask for something, but to send something. and he sent a poem he penned in the flush of his inspiration of nietzsche. again, we see this in some of the other letters. people put in photograph was of the houseses. they accept their christmas cards. is the microphone on? i had a funny feeling that it was off. keep going? can you hear me? okay. all right. so if american nietzsche devoteed want to possess a relic of him. he possessed them. ..

>> though disgusted by the mediocrity around her, she was also sent we might her own limitation. and it would probably turn probably be impossible for you to imagine anything more superficial than this. reading was the nietzsche's correspondents. he had a relationship with wagner before it entered explosively and nietzsche documented and this was what she was referring to. reading this exposure to death beyond death of one great sole striking fire against another great soul. reading about nietzsche's strength and resolve compilable hold onto my hunger. i never managed to have a soul, at any rate, i will remain aware of it.

i will desire one all my life. i will not accept substitutes. we see an example of how a reader used nietzsche's was the to explain herself. her feelings of displacement and a section in the world that seems content untracked contempt with ugly compromises. nietzsche's velocity gain traction and readers yearning for individuality. in their desire for self understanding, they sanctions their own version of nietzsche as individuality end in itself and not image. i'm pretty sure i'm going to have a hard time reading this, but this is from george mitchell of pennsylvania. he did not express [inaudible]

come up but he shows the need for nietzsche to please himself. as you will see from the above letterhead is one of the few nietzsche's in america, probably the only one. unfortunately, my grandparents and in a legal document and the air was perpetuated. i am proud of the name and that my ancestors came from the same stock as your illustrious brother. in an effort to sketch out the possible chunk of their mutual family tree, mitchell went on to tell the women about the moravian and bohemian roots of their people. and how his branch of the nietzsche family emigrated to pennsylvania in 1739. though centuries and oceans separated them from he hoped to possess an autograph example of

a and writing. just a few mementos of the thinker whom he hoped was in his blood. this desire to possess a sense of nietzsche, as he had possessed his readers, feels the strong affinity for nietzsche's thoughts, it takes many forms in these letters. john bush of duluth, minnesota, believe that he was nietzsche's velocity realized. on december 9, he announced his retirement. he wrote, dear madam, i beg to inform you that i am here, one who was evil enough and refers to the pastor [inaudible] he has written a chapter your beloved deceased brother.

you hereby have the consolation and delight to have lived long enough to note that the divisions, prophecies come and hopes, of your brother have been prefilled to the very letter. the author of the scribbling is the very man prognosticated in the said volume. very respectively john bush, he has a bunch of phrases from the figure from the north, one that was evil enough. when a week went by without hearing back from the archives, he followed up with a telegram. this is a little off, it is transcribed by a non-english speaker in germany. it reads, are you living yet one who is evil enough, john bush. so inconceivable was it that nietzsche might be ignoring his revelation, that bush thought the only reason could be put because she was dead. why else would she not respond?

so he sent an exasperated response. saying dear gentlemen, i pick i've been humbled to inquire, does the elizabeth nietzsche, live yet? i would greatly appreciate it if someone connected with the nietzsche archive would kindly answer the above query. one words will suffice. please comply with a small request and oblige. enclosed please find self-addressed envelope, as it is inconvenient to remit postage, i neglected that part of my obligation, but hope that you will do not track will expand. i thank you in advance. i remain very respectfully orts. though bush's self connection to nietzsche's was less abashed, the way that he put his philosophy to work was a common strategy. a strategy which we see in all

of these letter writers. they use nietzsche's terms and aspects of his own writing to describe aspect and 10 aspects of themselves. one reason so many reasons -- nietzsche was more of a great spirit than a human being. what we see in a lot of these letters is a very strong, unmistakable religious imagery that demonstrates the spiritual dimension of the american nietzsche devotion. after the death of god, these fighters still clung themselves to human possibility. nietzsche was not image of human possibility for them. what we see in some of the letters, and it is not just in the letters as i talk about in the book, i see this across the board, even in the highest of high philosophical work is this

transformation into a kind of secular image. certainly one that is shot through with religious or spiritual words. we see is people talk about the nietzsche archive committed talk about it in it as a pilgrimage. the holiest of holy places. that is the end of the quote. american readers fascination was to travel and meet his sister into his room and library. some of the letter writers refer to actual visits to the archives while other referred to travel plans aborted and delayed. expeditions, those realized and not, provide a fuller view of the nietzsche exchange. they remind us that when ideas

move readers come they do so in mind and body. nietzsche's american readers went to a bookstore. they went to a library. they went to a shine in their friend's house. some made a trans-atlantic voyage to germany the discussions of travel for the archives suggest there is a two-way aspect to this story of nietzsche. not only did nietzsche's travel to america with his ideas, but america's of america traveled to germany for them. what is significant is that they longed to see the archive for themselves in a language of religious devotion. we see this in 1920 letters, referring to a trip that he took not only to the archive, but also to reckon, which is his birthplace, where he went to see his birth house. the room which are dear brother was born, the old kitchen.

the trip proved so transformative that inspired his next book project, a nietzsche pilger manage. the trans-atlantic travels documented in the letters demonstrate that the transnational traffic of idea flows in both directions. it shows how nietzsche's ideas about nietzsche traversed national borders, sought to distinguish american from german or european art intellectual life. in doing so, it encourages us to rethink the integrity of our national narratives regarding culture. in other words, the very national narrative that i was struggling with initially, as i thought -- if i want to study american intellectual history, you have to stick with american. thinking that there is a distinct tradition here that is cut off from the wider

circulation of ideas in the world. the letter alone suggests that because the german thinker proved so inspirational to so many american readers, that the zeal, though sometimes admirable, often set up sets up a false intellectual distinction between american worldviews and the wider world views in the world. the small fragmentary letters help us to consider the ways in which social concerns are formed through trans-atlantic, wider world system of exchange, transmission, modification and transformation. in doing so, these letters help us to rethink some of the categories that we work with, like american exceptionalism or foreign thoughts. or we can talk about the organic ideas were truly american ideas. or radical imports. but before a we embrace the

artificiality of construct, like american or german, we should not forget the power that is in shaping the living people that we studied in the past. we see it today. as these letter writers show, many ideas about what is us and them were sharpened, not smoothed out and the friction of this movement. the letters in their own small way tell a bigger story about how the transnational traffic of nietzsche's image and ideas helped to puncture and rebuild traverse and reconstitute intellectual borders between america and europe. though we might be tempted to view the vibrancy of nietzsche's american career as a sign of solitary national -- transnational intellectual exchanges and neutrality, many of american readers here saw just the opposite. they turn to nietzsche not because they thought he should

make something possible for the pedestrian american intellect, but precisely because in their view, he couldn't. the prospect that it could shrink the distance between german and american culture was the last thing that many of these writers had on their minds. though they were reading it in america, they never thought would desire that his philosophy could find refuge here. they simply wanted more of nietzsche. one of the german pat those objections and which to shield themselves from the modern mentality of american life. here we are seeing a very common concern that we can see at the much higher registers -- but america's anti-intellectual. we have plenty of documentation there. the letters show that this was a concern in the lower registers of american culture as well. what we can here in these

letters is a concern about american anti-intellectualism. what we hear is a worry that america doesn't do culture. we can make or build mcdonald's and make those and we don't even do that anymore. but we don't do ideas. we don't produce ideas. here we see in the letter, the sphere of american anti-intellectualism, buried deep into the american readers. the ideas that we could never produce a nietzsche here. that our cultural flow is just too thin to produce this kind of genius. these letter and sent letters document that the longing for an intellectual engagement and the reverence for ideas, it was not exclusive to professional and lecture halls. average americans, were in the froth that nietzsche created and

embodied. this is just a sampling of letters that i talk about in the book, but they start to signal some of the ways in which american readers enlisting his image to contemplate themselves and to critique america. i would like to end with one that does a nice job pulling together american nietzsche devotion. the two-page typed letter from the san francisco writer, t.d. criton. the pseudonym, is german for plato's credo. this is a pseudonym that he is taking from plato. we see in the pseudonym and self fashioning going on. in this letter, t.d. criton exalts him as a timely critic of the world out of kilter. he began by telling elisabeth

forster- nietzsche come the life of your brother was great. no one suffered on account of his convictions, and not even jesus christ. t.d. criton, informed him that he, who had emigrated as a child, believe that nietzsche and the german people from which he came, were the true descendents of the spirit. he flashback to 1914 when he came to him like a thunderbolt of zeus from olympics. he opted for incarceration rather than to bear arms from the true greeks. he was disgusted with american literature, which produced only none worthy of her brother. and he moved from the critique of a debauched american culture, thing that i only hope that america might someday produce

writers worthy of nietzsche. then people will be able to show him as a savior as italy and germany. but these lines are written in 1933 can only suggest that hitler's rise to power confirm his views of the importunate incongruent a between german greatness and american poverty. they concluded by thanking her brother for the timeless philosophy of life. t.d. criton's letter is packed with all of the american fan letter sent to the nietzsche archives. it reveals how general readers, young and old and male and female, made and remade nietzsche in their own image. scholars, writers, and general readers like t.d. criton, whether the secular saint or the cultural critic coming to work on themselves and their america, and in doing so, they naturalized nietzsche is one of us. for t.d. criton, he had a

hellenic christ and not a great one. he helped him to articulate why he had felt such a distance in critical culture. his use of nietzsche shows how his ideas have moved through time and space. every time nietzsche's ideas did so, they were reconstituted when they got in the hands of an american reader. t.d. criton considered nietzsche's books among his prized possessions. his handwriting, a book, other mementos to show the practical power that he possessed in their lives. the only reason they wanted to have nietzsche on this basis is

because of how they impacted them. the letter put on paper what many in the decades to come with a vendor gay this. jack kerouac did in 1944, an early period of artistic searching and creation. jack kerouac had borrowed the alan james byrd library card to check out volumes of nietzsche. and he saw the transformative power of art that he's trying to achieve in his work. as if to ensure that nietzsche would stay with him after he returned the books, he cut his finger and with his blood, wrote the following words from the birth of tragedy. art is the highest pass and the proper metaphysical activity of the slight.

over a half-century later combat desire to bring nietzsche onto and into oneself can be seen in the nietzsche tattoos on the bodies of twentysomethings and upwards. like the actress, megan fox, who has a quotation from one of his books. and also like jerry gottlieb, the indexer of my book, who is an advanced graduate student and in comparative literature, who, at her first meeting took over the miniskirt and talk about the index, showed me why it was kismet that should be the indexer of my book because he had nietzsche tattoo that has a famous quote. there is always reason in madness. how fitting that this is pulled

from a section called reading and writing where nietzsche writes, of all that i have written to my love only what a person has written in his blood. he that writes in blood does not want to be read but learned by heart. those intern who wanted to learn nietzsche by heart, they did so by bringing them into their blood. an example like kerouac's fingers make literal what has been figural in 20th entry american history. that is that nietzsche has been inscribed on the american body. that nietzsche is in our blood. that nietzsche is, as allan bloom, put it, but he is part of us. the risks involved in making t.d. criton's two page epistle, can a cranky letter or a tattoo really tell us anything broader -- a broader significance for understanding nietzsche in

american thought and culture? my belief is that they do precisely because they speak to the ways in which an astonishing range of readers participate in a much wider circuit of intellectual exchange than we normally appreciate. in addition, they show how nietzsche worked with average americans and no longer makes sense to his readers as a term of self-description. even those who came to nietzsche with a sense of inadequacy, he provided them a language to critique the church, the marketplace or the civic area, that help them to sharpen their sense of distinction in themselves. enabling them to feel their own particularity. the letters reflect a broader sentiment that is also echoed in the published forces. mainly that nietzsche was a philosopher property work not by issuing instructions or for conduct, but by serving as a guide to becoming. if they were unable to anchor their beliefs in these universals, they could cling to a thicker who have learned to

live without them. thank you. [applause] [applause] okay, so i will leave out the tattoos, and i'm happy to take some questions right now. i have just been asked, if you would like to pose a question, please wait until the microphone comes to you. so the canasta question into the microphone. >> quick side note. in regards to ethnic solidarity and connection to the old country -- [inaudible question] >> that is a wonderful question. a disproportionate number of the letters are written by people with german names. some of the letters are written

in german. others are written in english where the letter writer regressed that he or she could not write in the mother tongue. but this is a source of great consternation. i think it is very conceivable that nietzsche really resonated with german readers. as we look out to the wider public sources, it just doesn't seem representative. first of all, at the turn of the last century, most educated americans -- german was a standard second language for educated americans. you did not have to be ethnically german and the first translations were also available in 1896. so it seems to me that the answer to your question is both yes and no. my sense is that for german, ethnic germans, there was that sense of affiliation or bond. when you see like someone who is a nietzsche. but also belonging to connect to

nietzsche and to feel that he was a sibling soul, it extends to people that were not ethnically german. making one more point, that instead in his early years in america was seen as a polish -- ethnically polish and not german. nietzsche described himself as the descendent of polish aristocrats. this was partially a way for him to criticize germany. this is picked up and actually becomes a big subject of conversation and debate. i think it's very interesting. nietzsche is polish and american intellectual life, until world war i. it is at that point that nietzsche becomes seen as the monster for the inspiration of the german mind. he becomes german, but he starts off polish, and i think it is

often said to criticize nietzsche, if you were german -- we would understand him better. our universities -- this would not have made him exotic enough. this made him exotic. >> thank you for doing the presentation and i can't wait to read the book. [inaudible question]

[inaudible question] >> yes, yes. >> [inaudible question] >> that is a good question. that is where we see a slip between the interpretations and the letters in what we can see in more widely published sources. no, that kind of self-criticism that we see, the sense of inadequacy, but that's not quite what you're talking about. in the broader reception, many thinkers pick up on us. to be a nietzsche come you can't

be a nietzsche. already, one of the early -- he is credited for making nietzsche and being an early inspiration. he said the only nietzsche -- pardon me. he recognize how ridiculous it was. in fact, he was very critical. should nietzsche ever get a reception here in america, should he ever get famous here in america, it can only be a people misunderstand him. she is not the first pick up on us. this is a scene that gets picked up over and over again. the notion that he can't have a wide readership. because if he does, then it's a trope. it is hero worship.

there are commentators who are critical of this. i could go on and on. yet, there are oftentimes the people who are popularizing nietzsche. allan bloom is the only example i can think of. he said the only reason he could be a fixture in pop-culture is because he is so badly misunderstood. there is some truth to that. a simple answer to get back your question, dozens of criticism and understanding that nietzsche didn't want his followers -- we see that, in fact, the person who i would think expressive as the most elegantly is josiah royce, who is eyebrow raising, when they discover that royce was a nietzsche reader. he was a firm idealist in the heyday of philosophical pragmatism. so what if an idealist rampant anti-idealism philosopher. he understood that nietzsche was

-- he tore down the absolutes. he tore down the foundations of our beliefs. but he didn't just leave it at that. he said that it is our job to come up with the images of the possible after the sprint this. royce understood if you turn nietzsche into that, you are missing the bow. you are not really for filling what nietzsche had called for what he envisioned. >> [inaudible question] >> wonderful. national tv wants to get this reference two i have a top reference for you. in the movie leading saddles, there is a character named howard johnson. he starts to make a pompous speech and said nietzsche says,

and another character says -- [inaudible] they assume that nietzsche is so well-known that people would understand. >> no, that's exactly right. that is how we can know that nietzsche is so conventional. as i put it in an article, he is conventional iconoclasts. >> people know him and his image but they don't know much about what his ideas actually are? >> sure. already there are different kinds of sources. a nietzsche throwaway line in the movie -- you can't subject the books that have been written about him. in the books that try to look at all the ways and registers in which nietzsche pops up in our lives. even the throwaway line -- as you put it, the throwaway

visuals, the best one that i can think of is little miss sunshine where the teenage brother is a nietzschean. in the movie has, i put it up on the screen, i could go back to read, where he is doing situps or push-ups in his room. pull-ups in his room. and he is flexing his own power. let me just go back to it. they are. how i make it bigger? i'm not sure i can. maybe i will leave it like that. otherwise i will press a button and it will explode. this is his profile with a mustache. i don't know the date of the movie -- the mid-2000. i saw this in a miami movie theater. with a bunch of people younger than myself. let's put it that way. as soon as this seemed popped up

from a burst into laughter. that is exactly what the movie was going for. just a visual cue. the incongruity of it. the absurdity of it. do i think people in the audience had already nietzsche? no, they did not. but the queue suggested the self aggrandized teenager, monogamous, sometimes the point of entry for me. how is it possible, like in blazing saddles or conan the barbarian, what i try to figure out or examine the book as there is a long history of engagements with nietzsche that he is just part of our discourse. his terms are terms. his image is now a standard iconographic image in a visual culture.

>> in the archive, you give any clues into elisabeth forster- nietzsche's role in her voice back to the writers, one should choose to say, i was thinking about hate mail. would she have thrown away hate mail? did you get another look in your research -- could you figure out how she contributes to fashioning what is left for you? or is that unattainable? >> there are hard-working historians who have patched together elisabeth forster- nietzsche's career. when nietzsche has his mental breakdown in 1889 from who spends the last 11 years of his life stark raving mad. it gets worse, but that is when

she takes over. it is already in those years of his mental twilight where she is crafting nietzsche as a profit. we have elisabeth forster- nietzsche to thank. prior to his sister, prior to some early folks who discovered him, his fame had not yet broken. she was instrumental. the unfortunate part of that story is that she was anti-somatic. she was very nationalistic. in fact, she is the one who, over the course of the early 1930s, helps to make the archive basically an instrument or institution devoted to the not cease. there is a famous picture where she welcomes hitler and there's a picture next to nietzsche. she plays some unfortunate roles to read fashion nietzsche as a

proto- nazi. she is credited to getting better translations out into public. how did she respond to the letter writers? the problem in the archive is simply cloudiness of the records. they do not have -- they were unable to have any kind of record. the letters that reflect. in some cases we have outgoing letters that have been sent back. some seem very gracious and particular. we can see that out of some of these letters come she formed relationships with some people. she had a relationship with several people. she had a relationship with a northwestern philosopher with the names james have built.

she neglected volumes for him so he can have them at northwestern. but it was very spotty when she was asked. what i don't have is how much these letters reflect and how many letters came in. i can see funny things. it is actually nietzsche who writes a follow-up letter. he says oh, dear, i understand you cannot send an autograph of me. you need to keep his body of autographs intact. i respect that. and i have records of other people saying thank you for the autograph. she might've been very choosy and selective and very savvy about who she was going to foster a relationship with and who not.

>> is the response to nietzsche different than other national responses? >> that is a wonderful question. it is a question that i can answer with varying degrees of precision. here is what i think is the clearest distinction, if you will. only two into the question is now, there are some things which we see, in all of the receptions, of course that nietzsche is a worldwide phenomenon. in scandinavia, spain, italy and japan. what i can see some of the things we are seeing in america are happening elsewhere. what i think is particular to the american reading is that i have very few nietzsche interpreters who are breeding

nietzsche as a political thinker. by politics, i mean that with a capital letter. they are reading nietzsche. he is a cultural critic of democracy. that is to say he is a critic of the types of democracy. not some great visionary of a new kind of politics, which we see in russia and italy, the fascism and mussolini and with nazi party. there may be liberals who read the nietzsche, we see both of those. but they are reading him more as a cultural critic of the human type that democracy fosters. i think that is very different. and i think that is very particular. it is again, it is about american culture.

nietzsche commentator on american soil. but not necessarily on our political system as such. the other thing that i would just signal, and danny was kind enough to reference it in the intro, as i mentioned, nietzsche was an avid reader of ralph waldo emerson. he was the first philosopher that he read. nietzsche read emerson as a teenager. i discussed this in the prologue. one of the things i try to examine in the book or at least touch on, when nietzsche's ideas first came to america in the 20th century, occasionally people would say it sounds a little familiar like our emerson. but they often do this as a way to make a distinction. either that nietzsche is genius

and emerson is victorian and a goody goody and emerson is safe for democracy and wholesome and doesn't have a breakdown. that nietzsche is a syphilitic madman. for those early on who he here the emersonian timber in nietzsche's voice are also trying to draw a distinction. what is interesting is this connection. it carries on in the american readings. in the last chapter, i discussed, in particular, three authors. richard were -- they use him as a way to reread and rediscover emerson for an american audience. so i think what may be distinct about americans or what we might be able to say it colors this

perception americans are hearing their own inner order, they are hearing emerson. there is something particular in that way. >> there is one more hand for one more question? >> she will bring you the microphone. >> i am an indigenous person, a tribal person of the continent. we see nietzsche is very different, particularly in europe, a lot of americans admire nietzsche and his rebelliousness. his iconic system. but we see him as someone without a conscience.

[inaudible] we see him as very much like american. we actually consider ourselves to be -- it's not really a matter of culture or philosophy -- as a philosophy, because i started it at northwestern -- we see ourselves as different and being bound to a conception of right and wrong and what should and should not be. that cannot change, depending upon what we read or what kind of education that we have gotten. it's what you know, [inaudible] >> thank you. well, that is a very big question. but let me try to give you a simple answer.

hopefully not a simplistic one. nietzsche is not without a conscience. he is certainly calling into question all absolutes. he calls in the question all foundations for human belief. whether it be god or science, whether it is truth. nietzsche's entire philosophical project, he does a lot of things as a writer, but one clear line of his writing, and certainly the one that has the biggest impact here, is that nietzsche challenged universal truths. >> that is what we see as a problem. he doesn't think that anything is objective. that is exactly what we see as a problem. but there are no facts, just hypotheses. there is no objective reality. >> that is a very good

interpretation of nietzsche. and one that americans will share with you. it is for this very reason that something fishy is remarkable and timely and needed to get rid of the artifacts of what it is -- fill in the blank. christianity, the artifacts of sexism or racism, whether it is the artifacts of a dysfunctional democracy. others see this as a terrible destructive, set of ideas that puts everything into question and has no reverence, gives us no point of moral orientation. for a country, trying to find its unity. this is not the kind of philosopher we need here. you are not alone in that reading. as a historian, all i can say is that there are many people who

are really intelligent and interesting readers, but they do very different things with the consequences. you are right. the question for readers was looking come out on the other end? can we get a better and more humane america? a better democracy? or is this -- will the stairway everything that we hold near and dear, and we will be stuck and destroyed in a nihilistic age. the stakes are very high for nietzsche. most of his readers understood that. how they came to terms with that, how they came to terms with their america is the subject of the book. and the reason why it is the subject of the book is because the huge part of our intellectual history. today, the letter writers are just a tiny little sampling of a much larger set of conversations , worried and angry ones -- today i showed you that there are people who dedicated their careers to taking nietzsche down.

they are important, too, and discussed in the book as well. but what i hope to make unmistakable is we want to understand these world record earnings in 20th century life. we can't do it without understanding how nietzsche figured into the conversation. thank you. >> there was a comment in which he was compared to albert einstein. he was a popularization of moral ideas that there are no absolutes. [inaudible] >> yes, that is nietzsche. moreover fertility. let me change that. one could quibble without philosophically. a reader quibbles with the idea

of relativity. it quibbles with objectivity. it gets a little pipeline tonight, but the notion he is tearing away moral absolutes is absolutely true. you are concerned about the consequences for that, and also that it brushes up against that is very interesting. >> [inaudible] [inaudible question] there is a genocide against it and nobody cares because it doesn't affect them. this is more relativity. a farmer rally was based on absolute right and wrong, this cannot be happening. >> well, -- i just try to bring

to awareness that there are many nietzsche readers who think that nietzsche would be just as outraged as you are. anyway, thank you very much for coming. [applause] >> is there a non-fiction author book you'd like to see featured on the tv? e-mail us or send us a twitter. i wanted to read what i thought was one of the more moving passengers, as you described. what is happening before the camera is rolling. this is what you described. you said that was not their intent. that was made brutally clear

when one of the officers suddenly kicked me with his boot inside of my face. smashing my job. it felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my head. before i could even register that unbearable pain, one of the other officers slammed me in the lower leg with his baton. i heard a crack and was surprised when it happened but i immediately pleaded with melanie, who was one of the arresting officers, who have that point had become a guardian angel, at least in the minds of someone being different from the rest. i know this is going to sound kind of strange, but up until that point, i have felt they were there at the scene. sort of a maternal presence that would not allow things to get too out of control. i shouted out to her, they don't have to do this. tell them, they don't have to do this. >> yeah. going into that story, you know, when i was initially pulled over -- i had been drinking and driving, but i had a job to go

to that monday. it was paying way more money than i was making from being indexed or at dodger stadium in the pizza stands in awe. they call in the pizza stands and on. the column answers to instead be ready to go to work on monday. when i heard that, i went and got a few beers and on and let them know that i was going to be going to work, but i do know how they feel about that. they get a little angry sometimes, you know, but it was all good. i went out with them. we were on our way to the gym or where my dad used to take assertion. i didn't want to be stuck in the same little community where we had been not, where we grew up. so we started over there. then the highway patrol started chasing me in the car. the only thing i could think about was that job. i have to make it to this job on

monday. i work on monday, have the cops behind me, i know i've been drinking, and i've been on parole. i have to get away. >> that is a lot to worry about. >> yes, i had worked myself -- you know, when you come out of prison and you really try to do the right thing, and then all of a sudden you know that you are about to -- your whole world is about to stop -- you're going back to jail, that is the only thing i could think of. i had lost the highway patrol cars and what happened was the helicopter was there. and there was no getting away from helicopter. my goodness. >> but you didn't think for a minute that you might outrun them? point you in a hyundai reign. >> yes, a hyundai excel. [laughter]

>> mr. king doesn't know this, but i was pushing a hyundai at the time. it had little hatchback. i used to drive from philadelphia to chicago from college home in the allegheny mountains. and it wouldn't get past 65 miles per hour. it wouldn't get past that. you were thinking you were in a hot rod, but you are really in a hyundai. >> exactly. to my surprise, they caught up with me. [laughter] >> when they caught up with me, i could see them pull up on the side of me and it looks like we are going to screw you up. pull over. my heart started pounding. i said, said, okay, or are denoted a beating is coming up with this case because that's how it goes. i learned that over the years. i was looking for a lighted area to stop.

were i chose to stop them there was buildings over there, apartments. i said, if i get out here, at least somebody will come outside or something. sure enough, she ordered me out of the car. they were a husband and wife team. highway patrol, the initial ones on the scene. so she came over to me, they had already taken me and ordered me out of out of the car, put your right hand and left hand on the car and lay down. so i did that. she came over to me and got my wallet out of my back pocket so she could get my id. she is doing that. and i am looking at them. i popped the trunk and they they're getting the baton onto the car. she is walking away and i said hey, i'm laying on the floor face down and was like, hey,

tell them they don't have to do this. i already know what is going to happen next. so when she walked away, her husband locked up and just like -- boom, kicked me in the temple area. broke my job. then he asked me how you feel. my whole heart, everything was broke at that point. all that's left now is not let this guy know that he didn't get the best of me. which he did at that point. i said i feel fine. sergeant koon comes up and tasered me right away. i can feel the blood coming out of my mouth in my face. and then he asked me how you feel now. i couldn't feel anything. he says, we are going to kill you, ron. i'm going to run.

so i hesitated for a second, i stayed on the ground, and was looking for a clearance at that point. i'm still on the ground. and i couldn't see a clearance. i'm looking for a clearance. when i see the clearance, it is between the hyundai and the police officer. so what i did was i get up to go and run, but this late went in front of me, i didn't know was broke him as a bully just fell down, so when i fell down, it looked like -- like i was going after him because my hands went like this. but i was trying to get my hands in front of me. you know, so i would not fall facedown. >> the video was running at the time? >> that's what had been running about 1520 minutes. it had caught that. what it didn't catch is, you know, the tasers.

15,000 volts worth in my body. he did that like three shots. while he was tasered me, he is telling me to stay still. there is no way you can stay still with those kinds of fools running through your body. i am soaked at this point in blood and electricity is hitting at the same time. so i am like -- i'm feeling like -- i validated when i almost burnt the house was playing with matches as a kid. my dad had an extension cord waiting on me when i got done in almost burnt down the house. that extension cord whelping felt like it prepared me that night for the teaser. being shocked is the same feeling. it is a horrible feeling.

when i felt that, it was like 20 times worth of an extension cord whelping. the guys that stays still. when he stopped the taser, i am regrouping, trying to see if i'm still there. i'm trying to stay still, but i can't. so the guy just -- he starts beating these more because i moved. once you start cursing and you're beating somebody, they really were into it, calling me names, they were really into it. at this point, i'm like oh, man. >> so you had a moment that you described in the book. i want the audience to hear how you described it.

where you inserted yourself in a long history of black people experiencing slave beings. >> yes. but also give me a lot of strength was knowing that blacks performing went through this in slavery. up to this day, you know, i said to myself, it was just moments to think. i said i have to survive this put my brothers and sisters survived this. you just have to stay alive.