Carl Schmitt

Until the publication of this pathbreaking book, most scholarly studies of Carl Schmitt offered an oversimplistic, apologetic account of Schmitt's intellectual and political sympathies to Nazi fascism, or they crudely criticized his ideas by caricaturing them. In this full-length study in English of Germany's most influential authoritarian right-wing political and legal thinker, award-winning political theorist William E. Scheuerman examines in close detail the profound impact of Schmitt's critique of the liberal rule of law, and he describes how Schmitt's understanding of liberal jurisprudence led him to embrace National Socialism as a viable alternative to the perceived pathologies of the liberal rule of law. Scheuerman illustrates how, in the aftermath of World War II, influential political theorists, particularly Schumpter, Hayek, and Morgenthau, imported Schmitt's ideas into American political discourse. Although none of these writers were followers of Schmitt, each one engaged in a "hidden dialogue" with him that shaped important facets of the intellectual discourse in postwar America. Carl Schmitt is an original, engaging study that will be of great value to political theorists and those interested in twentieth-century intellectual history and political philosophy.