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"This remarkable intellectual history excavates the scope and significance of the reaction against the entrenched ‘historicism’ that engaged German critics and filmmakers in the 1920s. . . . Baer’s signal achievement, however, is in the compelling case he makes that motion picture film was formally inextricable from philosophical thought about the mechanical device and its image that defined perception as well as delivered representations of the world. . . . A model for our time."
"Primarily for academic specialists with diverse interests in film and modern intellectual history. . . . [Readers] will profit from grappling with the novel interpretations of Historical Turns."
"Historical Turns is an ambitious book, drawing on Baer’s deep familiarity with and understanding of the philosophical discourses around historicism in order to uncover how the films of the Weimar era might not simply reflect, but rather actively intervene in and contribute to those same debates. Intellectually challenging and rigorously argued, Historical Turns not only offers important insight into the films on which it focuses, but also suggests a framework for ways in which scholars might approach film historiography as a whole."
“Baer makes a compelling case for approaching films with and as philosophical critique, an approach that can be extended and adapted to a wide range of contexts and concerns. Baer’s book is essential reading for philosophers, historians, and film and media scholars.”
“Nicholas Baer's Historical Turns: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism makes a welcome and timely contribution. Situated at the intersection of film studies, German intellectual history, and the philosophy of history.”
“Historical Turns is both a delightfully insightful and sophisticated study. . . . The book’s contribution is genuine and far-reaching in its argument for the interconnectedness of the fields of cultural and film studies, political history, and the history of the humanities. . . . The enduring value of Baer’s exploration might lie not only in its detailed readings of Weimar film but also in the methodological example it sets.”
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Historical Turns
2. Things as they could have happened: Siegfried Kracauer and the historical film
3. Relativist perspectivism: the cabinet of Dr. Caligari
4. Metaphysics of death: destiny
5. The nonsimultaneity of the simultaneous: rhythm 21
6. Natural history: the holy mountain
Epilogue. The Weimar analogy: metropolis and the global present
Notes
Bibliography
Index