Existentialism For Beginners is an entertaining romp through the
history of a philosophical movement that has had a broad and enduring
influence on Western culture. From the middle of the Nineteenth Century
through the late Twentieth Century, existentialism informed our politics
and art, and still exerts its influence today. Tracing the movement's
beginnings with close-up views of seminal figures like Kierkegaard,
Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche, Existentialism For Beginners follows its
intellectual and literary trail to German philosophers Jaspers and
Heidegger, and finally to the movement's flowering in post-World-War-II
France thanks to masterworks by such giants as Jean Paul Sartre, Albert
Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, plus many others.
Illustrations throughout -- at once lighthearted and gritty -- help
readers explore and understand a style of thinking that, while pervasive
in its influence, is often seen as obscure, difficult, cryptic and dark.
Existentialism For Beginners draws the movement's many diverse
elements together to provide an accessible introduction for those who
seek a better understanding of the topic, and an enjoyable historical
review packed with timeless quotes from existentialism's leading lights.