Domenico Losurdo, Nietzsche: The Aristocratic Radical – hardback Brill 2019; paperback Haymarket November 2020
Good to see news of the forthcoming paperback publication of this major study.
Translated by Gregor Benton. With an Introduction by Harrison Fluss.
Perhaps no philosopher is more of a conundrum than Nietzsche, the solitary rebel, poet, wayfarer, anti-revolutionary Aufklärer and theorist of aristocratic radicalism. His accusers identify in his ‘superman’ the origins of Nazism, and thus issue an irrevocable condemnation; his defenders pursue a hermeneutics of innocence founded ultimately in allegory. In a work that constitutes the most important contribution to Nietzschean studies in recent decades, Domenico Losurdo instead pursues a less reductive strategy. Taking literally the ruthless implications of Nietzsche’s anti-democratic thinking – his celebration of slavery, of war and colonial expansion, and eugenics – he nevertheless refuses to treat these from the perspective of the mid-twentieth century. In doing so, he restores Nietzsche’s works to their complex nineteenth-century context, and presents a more compelling account of the importance of Nietzsche as philosopher than can be expected from his many contemporary apologists.
Originally published in Italian by Bollati Boringhieri Editore as Domenico Losurdo, Nietzsche, il ribelle aristocratico: Biografia intellettuale e bilancio critico, Turin, 2002.
Full details including Table of Contents here.
Update: there is a review essay in Historical Materialism.
Update 2: there is a review at Marx and Philosophy
Update 3: and a discussion at the New Books Network
I was very sorry to hear of the death of 
Romanic Review theme issue: – “
Cat Moir, 
Thomas Nail, 
Rowland Atkinson, 
