_Reactionary Modernism_ deals with the way in which certain thinkers on the German Right dealt with the ideals of rationality and technological progress fostered by the Enlightenment. Thus, as distinguished from the traditional Ludditism (i.e. rejection of technology) and anti-technological focus of the traditional right, certain thinkers among the conservative revolutionaries in Germany after the First World War were able to accept the idea of technological progress while rejecting the Enlightenment ideals of rationality. These thinkers distinguished between Technik and Kultur and tried to bring Technik into the realm of Kultur and out of the realm of Zivilisation. Brought together by the experiences of the front (Fronterlebnis) during World War I, the reactionary modernists praised a masculinized ideal of technology. Such reactionary modernist thinkers including Oswald Spengler, Ernst Junger, Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger, Werner Sombart, and Moeller van den Bruck were precursors to fascism and national socialism (and in fact many became outright Nazis before the Second World War). _Reactionary Modernism_ focuses upon the thinking of such "conservative revolutionaries" as these thinkers as well as upon the thought of the German engineers and their understanding of capitalism and socialism and various aspects of the Third Reich and Hitler's movement. On one side were the ideals of "blood and soil" and the Volk, opposed to the modern "liberal" ideals of capitalism, communism, and modern finance. The reactionary modernists often were quite antisemitic contrasting the life blood of the German Volk with the more nefarious qualities of "Jewish finance and Bolshevism". While much of the thought of the reactionary modernists fueled the catastrophe that became the Third Reich, reactionary modernism offered a unique perspective which synthesized the aspects of Techniks and Kultur while rejecting the ideals of the Enlightenment.

A review of Jeffrey Herf's "Reactionary Modernism: Technology, culture, and politics in Weimar and the Third Reich." By Michael J. Saporito, MA History candidate, Salem State College. "Reactionary Modernism: Technology, culture, and politics in Weimar and the Third Reich." By Jeffrey Herf. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1984. pp. ix, 251.

Jeffrey Herf's Reactionary Modernism studies the complexities involved in Weimar and Nazi Germany's attempts to simultaneously modernize and antiquate their nation. Herf explores the conservative, anti-democratic groups during Weimar and how they were able to bring together the technological modernization of Germany, while at the same time rejecting almost of the liberal qualities of the Enlightenment. Herf looks to the intellectual, political writings of Juenger, Sombart and Spengler (also, Heidegger, Schmitt and Freyer) to demonstrate how the intellectual community desired to bring Germany into the modern era, while still retaining their distinct German Kultur. Other interesting sources that Herf uses to state his case are German engineering journals and the research of historian Karl-Heinz Ludwig. These sources show how German engineers were brought inline with the reactionary modernist line of thought. Herf successfully demonstrates how the synthesis of technology and German Kultur not only existed, but also thrived. Reactionary Modernism's incorporation of anti-Semitism is detailed if full. Herf explains that this explanation of modern German anti-Semitism is more solid than the version set forth by Adorno and Horkheimer in "The Dialectic of Enlightenment." Anti-democratic groups in Weimar Germany saw the Jew as the reason behind everything that was wrong with Germany. Herf's conclusions show how the Nazis became lost in their ideology and this ended up making technology that was needed for the war effort suffer. The popular myths of German technological supremacy are put to rest. a "Reactionary Modernism" is a valuable source for anyone studying Weimar, the Third Reich or the influence of the Enlightenment in totalitarian governments.

If you are attempting to understand what happened in interwar Germany then this book is worth reading. The main philosophy is that Germany attempted to combine the beauty of modernization with the romanticization of a mythological past. This book helps to explain the foundations of the Nazi regime and why it became so appealing on a mass level. At times the reading gets tough and little on the dry side, but if you can get thought that part of it, you will find the book worth your time.