A grand narrative of the intertwining lives of Walter Benjamin,
Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Ernst Cassirer, major
philosophers whose ideas shaped the twentieth century
The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is still fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians,
each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Walter Benjamin,
having survived the flu during the 1918 pandemic, is trying to flee his
overbearing father and floundering in his academic career. Ludwig
Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of
the monumental fortune he stands to inherit as a scion of one of the
wealthiest industrial families in Europe, in search of absolute
spiritual clarity. Meanwhile, Martin Heidegger, having managed to avoid
combat in war by serving instead as a meteorologist, is carefully
cultivating his career. Finally, Ernst Cassirer is working furiously in
academia, applying himself intensely to his writing and the possibility
of a career at Hamburg University. The stage is set for a great
intellectual drama, which will unfold across the next decade. The lives
and ideas of this extraordinary philosophical quartet will converge as
they become world historical figures. But with the Second World War
looming on the horizon, their fates will be very different.
Wolfram
Eilenberger stylishly traces the paths of these remarkable and
turbulent lives, which feature not only philosophy but some of the most
important other figures of the century, including John Maynard Keynes,
Hannah Arendt, and Bertrand Russell. In doing so, he tells a gripping
story about four of history's most ambitious and passionate thinkers,
and illuminates with rare clarity and economy their brilliant ideas,
which all too often have been regarded as enigmatic or opaque.
