Contents

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Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1Bordering on Politics

2Archaic Politics

• An Old Question     • Finis Universitatum?

3After Politics

• Nihilisms     • Overcoming Nihilism?

4The Free Use of the National

• The Poet of the Poets     • The Poet of the Germans

5Before Politics

• The First Interpretation (1935)

• The Second Interpretation (1942–3)

6And into Silence …

Three Concluding Questions

Notes

Bibliography

Index