{"product_id":"the-last-days-of-mankind-the-complete-text-9780300271171","title":"The Last Days of Mankind: The Complete Text","description":"\u003cb\u003eKraus's iconic WWI drama, a satirical indictment of the glory of war, now in English in its entirety for the first time\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"[A] superb translation.\"--Bill Marx, \u003ci\u003eArts Fuse\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e One hundred years after Austrian satirist Karl Kraus began writing his dramatic masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Days of Mankind \u003c\/i\u003eremains as powerfully relevant as the day it was published. Kraus's play enacts the tragic trajectory of the First World War, when mankind raced toward self-destruction by methods of modern warfare while extolling the glory and ignoring the horror of an allegedly \"defensive\" war. This volume is the first to present a complete English translation of Kraus's towering work, filling a major gap in the availability of Viennese literature from the era of the War to End All Wars. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Bertolt Brecht hailed \u003ci\u003eThe Last Days\u003c\/i\u003e as the masterpiece of Viennese modernism. In the apocalyptic drama Kraus constructs a textual collage, blending actual quotations from the Austrian army's call to arms, people's responses, political speeches, newspaper editorials, and a range of other sources. Seasoning the drama with comic invention and satirical verse, Kraus reveals how bungled diplomacy, greedy profiteers, Big Business complicity, gullible newsreaders, and, above all, the sloganizing of the press brought down the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the dramatization of sensationalized news reports, inurement to atrocities, and openness to war as remedy, today's readers will hear the echo of the fateful voices Kraus recorded as his homeland descended into self-destruction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Austrian Jewish author \u003cb\u003eKarl Kraus\u003c\/b\u003e (1874-1936) was the foremost German-language satirist of the twentieth century. As editor of the journal \u003ci\u003eDie Fackel (The Torch)\u003c\/i\u003e he conducted a sustained critique of propaganda and the press, expressed through polemical essays, witty aphorisms, and resonant poems. \u003cb\u003eEdward Timms\u003c\/b\u003e, founding director of the University of Sussex Centre for German-Jewish Studies, is best known for his two-volume study \u003ci\u003eKarl Kraus--Apocalyptic Satirist\u003c\/i\u003e. The title of his memoirs, \u003ci\u003eTaking Up the Torch\u003c\/i\u003e, reflects his long-standing interest in Kraus's journal.\u003cb\u003e Fred Bridgham \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of wide-ranging studies in German literature, history, and the history of ideas. His translations of lieder and opera include Hans Werner Henze's \u003ci\u003eThe Prince of Homburg \u003c\/i\u003efor performance by English National Opera.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50390622634258,"sku":"9780300271171","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_00c4533e-777d-47cd-adc3-f686dcb2ec4a.jpg?v=1728952830","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-last-days-of-mankind-the-complete-text-9780300271171","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}