1
WARREN BRECKMAN
Sheldon and Lucy Hackney Professor of History
Curriculum Vitae
Department of History 25 Merion Road
College Hall Merion Station, PA 19066
University of Pennsylvania h. 484-434-8971
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228
w. 215-898-8518
fax 215-573-2089
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2017: Sheldon and Lucy Hackney Professor of History
2016: Faculty, School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University (July-August 2016)
2015: Rose Family Endowed Term Professor, University of Pennsylvania
2012-: Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
2008-2009: Academic Director, Berlin Consortium for German Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
2004-05: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Research Fellow, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster
2001: Member, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study
1999-: Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
1998: Visiting Scholar, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
1994-99: Assistant Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
1993-95: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
EDITORIAL AND ADVISORY BOARDS
2013-: Advisory Board, International Marx-Engels Stiftung
2013-: Advisory Board, Orbis Idearum
2010-: Editorial Board, Anthem Studies in European Ideas and Identities, Anthem Press
2007-: Editorial Board, Lapham’s Quarterly
2006-: Founding member of the editorial group (Arbeitskreis), Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte
2005-2016: Executive Co-Editor, Journal of the History of Ideas (with Anthony Grafton, Ann Moyer, and Martin Burke)
EDUCATION
1993: Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Modern European History
1988: M.A. University of California, Berkeley, Modern European History
1986: B.A. (Honours) University of Winnipeg, History
HONOURS AND AWARDS
Siemens Fellow, American Academy in Berlin, 2013
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Research Fellowship, 2004
Selma V. Forkosch Prize for the Best Article Published in the Journal of the History of Ideas, 2001
Princeton Institute for Advanced Study Fellow, 2001
University of Pennsylvania Faculty Fellowship, 2000
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1998
Richard S. Dunn Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1997
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Post-Doctoral
Fellowship, 1993-95
Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, 1986-90
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral
Fellowship, 1988-89
Ira and Abraham Konig Fellowship, 1989
Humanities Graduate Research Grant of the University of California, Berkeley,
1989
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Special M.A.
Scholarship (declined), 1986
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Adventures of the Symbolic: Postmarxism and Radical Democracy.New York: Columbia University Press, 2013 (paperback edition, 2014)
European Romanticism: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008 (new edition, Hackett Publishing, 2015)
Marx, the Young Hegelians and the Origins of Radical Social Theory: Dethroning the Self. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999 (paperback edition, 2001; Chinese-language edition, 2013)
Edited Volumes
The Cambridge History of Modern European Thought, 2 vols., co-edited with Peter E. Gordon. Under contract with Cambridge University Press, publication in 2018
‘Marx’, Theme issue of Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, vol. 10, no. 3 (Fall 2017), eds. Warren Breckman and Sonja Asal
‘Saupreußen’, Theme issue ofZeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, vol. 5, no. 4 (Winter 2011), eds. Warren Breckman, Jonas Maatsch, and Thorsten Valk
‘Idioten’, Theme issue of Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, vol. 4, no. 2 (Sommer 2010), eds. Warren Breckman, Jost Philipp Klenner, and Wolfert von Rahden
The Modernist Imagination: Intellectual History and Critical Theory. Essays in Honor of Martin Jay, eds. Warren Breckman, Peter E. Gordon, A. Dirk Moses, Samuel Moyn, and Elliot Neaman. New York: Berghahn Books, 2009
Book Chapters
“Central Europe Between 1770 and 1850: The Rise and Fall of German Romantic Art and Culture,” The Enchanted World of German Romantic Prints: 1770-1850, ed. John Ittmann. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017, 34-51.
“Kalabalikarm Sesi Duyulur mu? ‘Wall Street’I Isgal Et’, Kendiliginden Örgütlenme ve Dogrudan Demokrasi,” Kitlereri Yeniden Düsünmek: Hukuk, Siddet ve Demokrasi, ed. Zeynep Koçak. Istanbul: Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayinlari, 2017, 101-117
“Radikale Demokratie zwischen Romantik und Strukturalismus,”Politische Repräsentation und das Symbolische: Historische, Politische und Soziologische Perspektiven,eds. Paula Diehl and Felix Steilen. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2016, 51-64
“The Power and the Void: Radical Democracy, Post-Marxism, and the Machiavellian Moment,” Radical Intellectuals and the Subversion of Progressive Politics: The Betrayal of Politics, eds. Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker and Michael J. Thompson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 237-254
“Arnold Ruge and the Machiavellian Moment,”Die Linken Hegelianer: Studien zum Verhältnis von Religion und Politik im Vormarz, eds. Michael Quate and Amir Mohseni. Munich: Fink Verlag, 2015
“Geistesgeschichte, Interdisziplinarität und Rendez-Vous-Disziplin,” Formen derIdeengeschichte, ed. Michel Kowalewicz. Münster: Mentis Verlag, 2014, 59-72
“Intellectual History and the Interdisciplinary Ideal,” Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, eds. Darrin McMahon and Samuel Moyn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, 275-293
“Lefort and the Symbolic Dimension,” in Claude Lefort: Thinker of the Political, ed. Martín Plot. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013, 176-185
“Žižek, Laclau und das Ende des Postmarxismus,” in Unbedingte Demokratie, ed. Andreas Hetzl. Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlag, 2011, 199-214
“Politics, Religion, and Personhood: The Left Hegelians and the Christian German State,” in Politics, Religion and Art: Divisions and Debate in the Hegelian School, ed. Douglas Moggach. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2011, 96-117
“History and Indeterminacy: Making Sense of Pasts Imperfect,” Indeterminacy: The Mapped, the Navigable, and the Uncharted, ed. Jose V. Ciprut. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009, 267-287
“The Return of the King: Hegelianism and Post-Marxism in Žižek and Nancy,” in The Modernist Imagination: Intellectual History and Critical Theory. Essays in Honor of Martin Jay, eds. Warren Breckman, Peter E. Gordon, A. Dirk Moses, Samuel Moyn, and Elliot Neaman. New York: Berghahn Books, 2009, 117-136
“Die Rückkehr des Königs: Radikaldemokratische Adaptionen eines hegelianischen Motivs bei Jean-Luc Nancy und Slavoj Žižek,” Der französische Hegel, ed. Ulrich Johannes Schneider. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2007, 205-218
“Politik in symbolischer Tonart: Pierre Leroux, der romantische Sozialismus und die Schelling-Affäre,” Hegelianismus und Saint-Simonismus, eds. Hans-Christoph Schmidt am Busch, Ludwig Siep, Hans-Ulrich Thamer, Norbert Waszek. Paderborn: Mentis Verlag, 2007, 201-228 (A French version of this volume is in preparation by Paragon.)
“The Symbolic Dimension and the Politics of Young Hegelianism,” The New Hegelians. Politics and Philosophy in the Hegelian School, ed. Douglas Moggach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 67-90
“The Post-Marx of the Letter,” After the Deluge: New Perspectives on Postwar French Intellectual and Cultural History, ed. Julian Bourg. New York: Lexington Books, 2004, 73-100
“Democracy Beyond Nation and Rule? Reflections on the Democratic Possibilities of Proceduralism,” After National Democracy: Rights, Law and Power in America and the New Europe, ed. by Lars Tragardh. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2004, 143-169
“Emancipation and the Bounds of Meaning: Reading, Representation and Politics in Young Hegelianism,” European Culture in a Changing World: Between Nationalism and Globalism, ed. by Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe. Amersham: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2004, 75-85
“Diagnosing the ‘German Misery’: Radicalism and the Problem of National Character, 1830-1848,” Between Reform and Revolution: Studies in the History of German Socialism and Communism, ed. by D.E. Barclay and E.D. Weitz. Oxford: Berghahn, 1998, 33-61
Articles
“The Fortunes of Freud,” The New Republic, June 1, 2017.
“Die Macht und die Leere: Radikale Demokratie, Postmarxismus und das machiavellische Moment,” Lettre International, 105 (Sommer 2014), 99-102
"Putera Si Golul: Democratia Radicala, Postmarxismul si Momentual Machiavelli," Lettre International, (Fall 2014), 3-7
“What is the Genus of Genius? Divine Fury: A History of Genius, by Darrin McMahon,” The Nation, June 2, 2014
“Ich glaube, dass nicht einmal der Todesritt der Leichten Brigade mutiger hätte sein können als unser irrwitziger Angriff auf diese Maschinengewehre,” Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, VIII, 2 (Sommer 2014), 123-126
“Derrida im Kontext,”Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, VII, 4 (Winter 2013), 117-121
Responses, Intellectual History: 5 Questions, eds. Morten Haugaard Jeppesen, Frederik Stjernfelt, Mikkel Thorup. Copenhagen: Automatic Press/VIP, 2013, 35-42
“‘Occupy’: Der Augenblick des Cornelius Castoriadis,” Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, VI, 3 (Herbst 2012), 119-123
“Claude Lefort and the Symbolic Dimension,” Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, vol. 19, no. 1 (March 2012), 30-36
“Forum: History of Political Thought,” German History, vol. 30, no. 1 (2012), 75-99
“Ein Fetisch in London,” Gegenworte: Hefte für den Disput über Wissen. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 24 (Herbst 2010), 37-39
“A Matter of Optics,” Lapham’s Quarterly, vol. III, no. 4 (Fall 2010), 177-185
“Times of Theory: On Writing the History of French Theory,” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 71, no. 3 (July 2010), 339-361
“Les hégéliens de gauche et l'État chrétien germanique: politique, religion et personnalité,” La Revue française d' histoire des idées politiques, no 31 (1er Semestre, 2010), 57-80
“Secular Revival,” Lapham’s Quarterly, vol. III, no. 1 (Winter 2010), 203-212
“Die deutschen Radikalen und das Problem des Nationalcharakters 1830–1848,” Marx-Engels Jahrbuch, (2009), 176-207
“The Uses of ‘Creatioex nihilo’: On the Postmodern Revival of a Theological Trope,” Ideas in History, vol. IV, no. 2(2009), 39-61
“Creatio ex nihilo: Zur postmodernen Wiederbelebung einer theologischen Metapher,” Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, vol. 1, no. 2, (Summer 2007), 13-28
“Konzeption und Geschichte des Journal of the History of Ideas,” Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring 2007), 106-113
“Demokratie zwischen Entzauberung und politischer Theologie: Zur Rückkehr der Religion im französischen Postmarxismus,” Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 30, 3 (2005), 293-315
“Democracy Between Disenchantment and Political Theology: French Post-Marxism and the Return of Religion,” New German Critique, 94 (Winter, 2005), 72-105
“Zwischen postmoderner Melancholie und postmarxistischer Trauerarbeit: Ernesto Laclau und Chantal Mouffe,” Dialektik. Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, 1 (2005), 51-78
“Politics in a Symbolic Key: Pierre Leroux, Romantic Socialism and the ‘Schelling Affair’,” Modern Intellectual History, vol. 2, no. 1 (Apr. 2005), 61-86
“Emancipation and the Bounds of Meaning: Reading, Representation and Politics in Young Hegelianism,” The European Legacy, vol. 8, no. 4 (August 2003), 425-439
“The Sign of Humanity: Reading, Representation and Politics in Young Hegelianism,”
Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of
European Ideas, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe (Aberystwyth, 2003; CD-ROM)
“Die Entthronung des Selbst: Marx, die Junghegelianer und der Streit um den
Begriff der Persönlichkeit,” Dialektik: Enzyklopädische Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, 1 (2002), 5-30
“Eduard Gans and the Crisis of Hegelianism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 62, 3 (July 2001), 543-564 (Chinese translation in Folk Law(《民间法》), vol. 16 (Dec., 2015), trans. Yao Yuan (姚远), Xiamen University Press (厦门大学出版社), pp. 384-401. [Winner of the Selma V. Forkosch Prize for the Best Article published in the Journal of the History of Ideas]
“Democratic Theory Between ‘Autonomy’ and ‘Life-World’: Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort,” Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, (Haifa, 2001; CD-ROM)
“Imgelemin Oznesi,” Tarih Yaziminda Yeni Yaklasimlar: Kuresellsme ve Yerellesme, (Istanbul, 2000), 236-247 (“The Subject of the Imaginary”)
“Cornelius Castoriadis contra Postmodernism: Beyond the ‘French Ideology’,” French Politics and Society, vol. 16, 2 (Spring, 1998), 30-42
“Nationalism, Individualism and Capitalism: Reflections on Liah Greenfeld’s ‘Worth of Nations’,” Critical Review, vol. 10, 3 (Summer, 1996), 389-408 [co-authored with Lars Tragardh, followed by a response from Liah Greenfeld]
“The National Discourse of Radical Internationalism in Vormärz Germany,” Selected Papers from the 1995 Consortium on Revolutionary Europe. Florida,
1996, 616-628
“Ludwig Feuerbach and the Political Theology of Restoration,” History of
Political Thought, vol. 13, 3 (Autumn, 1992), 437-462
“Disciplining Consumption: The Debate About Luxury in Wilhelmine Germany, 1890-1914,” Journal of Social History, vol. 24, 3 (Spring, 1991), 485-505
Web Articles
“The Fortunes of Freud,” The New Republic, June 1, 2017
“Stranger in a Strange Land,” Lapham’s Quarterly Online:
“A Man of Parts,” Lapham’s Quarterly Online:
“Canadian Rules,” Lapham’s Quarterly Online:
“The Wall Came Tumbling Down,” Lapham’s Quarterly Online:
down.php
“Archiving the Future,” Lapham’s Quarterly Online:
Articles Forthcoming
“Two Regimes of the Symbolic,” Power and Representation, eds. Lisa Disch, Nadia Urbinati, Mathijs van de Sande.
“Politique en Tonalité Symbolique: Pierre Leroux, Le Socialisme Romantique et l’Affaire Schelling,” Hegelianisme et Saint-Simonisme, eds. Hans-Christoph Schmidt am Busch, Ludwig Siep, Hans-Ulrich Thamer, Norbert Waszek. Paris: Paragon
Reviews
“Unfinished Projects: Decolonization and the Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. By Paige Arthur,” Journal of Modern History, vol. 84, no. 1 (March 2012), 215-217.
“Means and Ends: The Idea of Capital in the West, 1500-1970. By Francesco Boldizzoni,” American Historical Review, vol. 115, no. 1 (February 2010), 190-191
“From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought. By Julian Bourg,” Journal of Modern History, vol. 81, no. 1 (March 2009), 207-209
“The Idea of the Self. Thought and Experience in Western Europe Since the Seventeenth Century. By Jerrold Seigel,” Journal of British Studies, vol. 46, 1 (Jan. 2007), 158-161
“The Philosophy and Politics of Bruno Bauer. By Douglas Moggach,” European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 14, 1 (April 2006), 117-121
“Defining Germany: The 1848 Frankfurt Parliamentarians and National Identity. By Brian E. Vick,” American Historical Review, vol. 108, no. 5 (December 2003), 1541-1542
“Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935. By Karl Toepfer,” Journal of Social History, vol. 36, 2 (Winter 2002), 467-469
“Paris Fin de Siècle: Politique et Culture. By Christophe Charle,” Journal of
Social History, vol. 33, 4, (Summer 2000), 978-980
“Reading Berlin 1900. By Peter Fritzsche,” Journal of Social History, vol. 31, 3 (Spring, 1998), 716-718
“The Origins of the Authoritarian Welfare State in Prussia: Conservatives,
Bureaucracy, and the Social Question, 1815-1870. By Hermann Beck,”
Journal of Social History, vol. 30, 3 (Spring, 1997), 769-771
“Am Beginn der Konsumgesellschaft: Mangelerfahrung, Lebenshaltung,
Wohlstandshoffnung in Westdeutschland in den fünfziger Jahren. By Michael
Wildt,” Journal of Social History, vol. 29, 2 (Winter, 1995), 179-180
“Berlin Cabaret. By Peter Jelavich,” Journal of Social History, vol. 29, 1 (Fall, 1995), 416-417
“Time and Money. The Making of Consumer Culture. By Gary Cross,” Journal of Social History, vol. 28, 3 (Spring, 1995), 659-660
“Durchbruch zum modernen Massenkonsum. Edited by Hans-Jürgen Teuteberg,” Journal of Social History, vol. 25, 4 (Summer, 1992), 886-888
“Lebenswelt und Kultur der unterbürgerlichen Schichten im 19. und 20.
Jahrhundert. By Wolfgang Kaschuba,” Journal of Social History, vol. 25, 4
(Summer, 1992), 905-907
“After the Wall. East Meets West in the New Berlin. By John Borneman,” Toronto Star, April 13, 1991
Encyclopedia Entries
“Castoriadis, Cornelius,” Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, ed. Gregory Claeys. Washington: Sage Publications, 2013
“Feuerbach, Ludwig,” Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, ed. Gregory Claeys. Washington: Sage Publications, 2013
“Laclau, Ernesto,” Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, ed. Gregory Claeys. Washington: Sage Publications, 2013
“Lefort, Claude,” Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, ed. Gregory Claeys. Washington: Sage Publications, 2013
“Zeitgeist,” A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing, ed. by D.R. Woolf.
New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1998
“Stein, Lorenz von,” A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing, ed. by D.R. Woolf. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1998
“Weber, Marianne,” A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing, ed. by D.R.
Woolf. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1998
“Consumerism,” Encyclopedia of Social History, ed. by Peter N. Stearns, et. al. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1994
Interviews
“El éxito de Trump exige un examen de conciencia de la izquierda estadounidense,”
Contexto y Acción, Número 96, 21/12/2016
“Intellectual History,” Today’s Culture (Persian language journal, published in Tehran, forthcoming)
“Aşırı ilgi vardı çünkü TÜRKİYE ÇOK ÖNEMLİ,” Akşam, 26 June, 2013
“Obama isyan eden gençleri sahiplendi,” Milliyet, 19 June, 2013
“Il est urgent de transmettre le sens de la complexité historique,” Nonfiction.fr, April 28 2009 (
“The Journal of the History of Ideas,” Periodical Radio, hosted by Steve Black, October 2007 (
PAPERS PRESENTED
“Models of Self and Identity from Romanticism to Postmodernism,” Panel on Gerald Izenberg, Identity: The Necessity of a Modern Idea, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Jan 5, 2018
“Revisiting Lefort’s ‘Invisible Ideology’,” Why Lefort Matters, Université libres de Bruxelles, Nov 10, 2017
“Happiness, Liberty, and Imagination in JS Mill and William Wordsworth,” Liberty Fund Conference, Vinoy Renaissance, St Petersburg, Oct 26-29, 2017
“Radical Imaginaries: Roundtable Discussion,” Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, Sept. 6, 2017
“Claude Lefort’s Argument with Hannah Arendt,” Atlantic Transfers: Responses to Totalitarianism in Legal Thought and the Dilemma of Liberty in the Post-War Atlantic, New York University, Nov. 5, 2016
“Liberty and Responsibility in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain,” Liberty Fund Conference, Mohonk Mountain House, October 13-15, 2016
“The Death of Immortality: The Afterlife of an Argument from Adorno to Lefort,” Beyond the Dialectical Imagination: A Conference in Honor of Martin Jay, October 7, 2016
“The Power and the Void: Radical Democracy, Postmarxism and the Machiavellian Moment,” Pre-Circulated Paper Workshop, School for Criticism and Theory, Cornell University, July 7, 2016
“Can the Crowd Speak? Occupy Wall Street, Self-Organization, and Direct Democracy,” Public Lecture, Cornell University, July 5, 2016
“Les jeunes hégéliens comme moment machiavélien:Pour repenser la singularité deKarl Marx,” Politique, Emancipation, Utopie. Pour Miguel Abensour, Paris, October 23, 2015
“An Intellectual Historian in the Trenches,” Indiana University, September 4, 2015
Respondent, “Making an Impression,” Doing Wissenschaft: The Academic Study of Judaism as Practice, 1818-2018, 21st Annual Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, April 27, 2015
Respondent to Vincent Descombes, “The Order of Things: An Archeology of What?” Keynote Address, Les mots et les choses and beyond, Harvard University, April 17, 2015
“Philosophy and Intellectual History,” Beijing Normal University, Presentation to Philosophy Department, March 13, 2015
“Postmarxism,” Beijing Normal University, March 12, 2015
“Marx and Young Hegelianism,” Beijing Normal University, March 9, 2015
“Intellectual History, Interdisciplinarity, and Eclecticism,” Intellectual History: Traditions and Perspectives, Ruhr Universität Berlin, November 18, 2014
“Radical Democracy between Romanticism and Structuralism,” Keynote, Power and Representation, Catholic University of Leuven, June 4, 2014
“Ruge, Marx and ‘True’ Democracy,” Universität Leipzig, February 7, 2014
“Machiavelli and Radical Democracy,” Cambridge University, Cambridge Seminars in Political Thought and Intellectual History, February 3, 2014
“Postmarxism between Romanticism and Structuralism,” Humboldt Universität, Berlin, January 8, 2014
“Machiavelli, Lefort, Althusser,” Freie Universität, Berlin, December 19, 2013
“The Postmarxist Machiavelli,” Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, December 10, 2013
“Radical Democracy and the Strange Career of Machiavelli,” American Academy in Berlin, December 2, 2013
“Postmarxism, Radical Democracy, and the Machiavellian Moment,” Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Heidelberg, Germany, November 26, 2013
“Intellectual History and Ideengeschichte,” Aims and Methods of the History of Ideas, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland, Sept. 5, 2013
“Can the Crowd Speak? Occupy Wall Street, Self-Organization and Direct Democracy,” Rethinking Crowds: Violence, Law and Democracy, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 18 June, 2013