Verstaatlichte Sittlichkeit

Friedhelm Lövenich's German-language book looks at conservatism through the work of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, and in particular his 'Naturgeschichte des Volkes'. Its subtitle names the core question: how a conservative outlook constructs the lifeworld, the ordinary world of custom and daily habit, within that text.

The publisher's description argues that traditions which have lost their intellectual force can still shape political and social life for generations, and that the energy behind such older ideas is kept alive by the pressures of the present. Conservatism, the author shows, does not rest on the same hopes for a better life that socialism offers the oppressed.

The book suits readers of German intellectual and social history, and anyone studying how conservative ideas were framed in social thought.

Edition note: published by VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. ISBN-13: 9783322972545.