Wagnerism in European Culture and Politics

This is the first book to treat the cultural and intellectual movement inspired by Richard Wagner -- a movement that exerted major influence on the arts, aesthetics, politics, and social thought in Europe during the period 1850-1918. In charting the evolution of Wagnerism in its various national idioms, six historians assess its importance within the contexts of European and American intellectual history. Each chapter examines an important national variation on the Wagnerian theme. Taken as a whole, the book traces Wagnerism from its origins in Germany through its spread into the cultural centers of France and Italy and then into Russia, England, and the United States. The innumerable Wagner Societies, the pilgrimages to Bayreuth, the attempts to imitate Bayreuth elsewhere in Germany and abroad. Their investigations make clear that as a kind of artistic industry Wagnerism ultimately transcended even the most grandiose ambitions of the Master. In evaluating what the movement produced, the contributors reach a mixed verdict, expressing considerable skepticism about the achievements and the legacy of the Wagnerian movement.