Book Review: American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

While Friedrich Nietzsche has had a significant impact on my own life, I can honestly say that I had very little idea, until I read this book, just how great an impact he has had on the lives of so many others. Ratner-Rosenhagen does an excellent job of covering the history of Nietzsche's engagement with American thinkers, from Emerson's impact on Nietzsche through to Nietzsche's impact on modern American thinkers. I think the most fascinating part of the book is the “Interlude” in which she discusses some of the letters she discovered at the Nietzsche Archive written by American admirers to his sister, who took over the estate after Nietzsche's mental collapse and death. The only complaint I can leverage is that I don't think Ratner-Rosenhagen cast her net quite wide enough. While she does a very good job of covering certain figures whom Nietzsche has clearly had an impact upon, I would have liked to have seen a fuller treatment that included a greater diversity even if this necessitated that less detail be paid to each individual. I recommend this book for anyone with either than interest in American intellectual history and/or a love for Nietzsche; happily, I have both, which made this book a real treat.