1914 AND THE NIGHTMARE OF REASON
THE END OF ENLIGHTENMENT
curated by Philipp Blom
The First World War marked the moment when European societies began to debate whether the rationality of modernity had turned against them. On the Western Front in particular, it became clear that individuals and their virtues - courage, strength, sacrifice, patriotism - were no match for the technology of killing.
After the war, and in a second wave after Auschwitz, there was massive criticism of the legacy of the Enlightenment, which was seen as a mask of inhumanity and oppression. According to its critics, the Enlightenment cannot counter the dehumanisation of mass society and the prevailing rationalisation of our societies and even destroys normative ties and orientation.
But which Enlightenment was criticised here, from Bergson to Horkheimer/Adorno and Foucault? Are the rationalism and universalism of the Enlightenment outdated as a model?
Philipp Blom (1970) grew up in Hamburg and Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia. After studying in Vienna and Oxford, during which he also worked as a teacher, he gained a doctorate in history. During his time at Oxford, he published the novel The Simmons Papers, which, like most of his subsequent books, he wrote in English and then translated into German himself.
From 1997 to 2001, Blom and his wife Veronica Buckley lived in London, where he first worked as an editor in a publishing house and then as an author and freelance foreign correspondent for German, Swiss and British newspapers, magazines and radio stations. In 2001 Philipp Blom left the UK and settled in Paris to concentrate fully on his books, and since 2006 he has lived in Vienna with his wife. In addition to his books, he works as a journalist and presents the programme „Von Tag zu Tag“ on the Austrian culture channel Ö1. Lectures and reading tours have taken him to various European countries, the USA and South America.
Philipp Blom is currently working on his book At Breaking Point - a historical overview of culture and life between the war years in Europe and the United States.
In 2009-2010 he held a research fellowship at the IFK (International Research Centre for Cultural Studies) in Vienna.
Philipp Blom's book Der taumelnde Kontinent was awarded the NDR Kultur non-fiction prize for the best non-fiction book of 2009 and in February 2010 he received the Groene Waterman Prijs (Antwerp, Belgium).
His book Böse Philosophen. Ein Salon in Paris und das vergessene Erbe der Aufklärung was honoured with the Gleim Prize in 2011 and named Historical Book of the Year 2011 (individual study) by Damals Magazin.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek_9SJoSz-0