The 1980s have been a crucial decade in the political life of Western democracies in general, and of the Federal Republic of Germany in particular. The transformations that accompanied a shift from 13 years of Social democratic rule in Germany to government by the conservative Christian Democrats are captured in this series of insightful, often passionate political and cultural commentaries. The central theme uniting the essays is the German problem of 'coming to terms within the past,' a problem that has important implications outside Germany as well.

Of particular note are the essays on what has come to be known as the Historian's Debate: Habermas's attack on the revisionist German historians who have been trying to trivialize and "normalize" the history of the Nazi period, and his defence of the need for a realistic and discriminating approach to the Nazi period and its legacy. Habermas also takes up the recent debate concerning Martin Heidegger's involvement with Nazism and the rise of the neoconservative movement in Europe and America. In particular, the essay onThe New Obscurity combines Habermas's analysis of the problems of the welfare state with his suggestions for avenues open to utopian impulses today.

Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theories on communicative rationality and the public sphere. In 2014, Prospect readers chose Habermas as one of their favourites among the "world's leading thinkers".

Translator's Preface.

1. Neoconservatism.

2. The New Obscurity:.

The Crisis of the Welfare State and the Exhaustion of Utopian Energies.

3. Heinrich Heine and the Role of the Intellectual in Germany.

4. The Idea of the University:.

Learning Processes.

5. The Horrors of Autonomy:.

Carl Schmitt in English.

6. Work and Weltanschauung:.

The Heidegger Controversy from a German Perspective.

7. Taking Aim at the Heart of the Present:.

On Foucault's Lecture on Kant'sWhat is Enlightenment?.

8. Culture and Politics.

9. A Kind of Settling of Damages.

10. Historical Consciousness and Post-Traditional Identity:.

The Federal Republic's Orientation to the West.