This thesis examines the theory of diplomacy in the formative phase of the European states-system. From the viewpoint of the discourse on the 'ideal ambassador', it explores early modern diplomacy as cultural history encompassing ideas, discourses, perceptions and 'codes'. The scope of study is the century following the Peace of Westphalia (1648), and three states and regions (France, Britain, the Holy Roman Empire) serve as case studies for a comparative approach of diplomatic theory and practice. In five parts, the adaptation of the theory and practice of diplomacy to the new demands of international relations after 1648 are considered. The first section sets the stage by illustrating that the mid-seventeenth century was regarded as a turning point in the practice of diplomacy. Part II examines diplomatic theory as a particular 'language' in its intellectual and socio-professional contexts. While published treatises on the 'ideal ambassador' build the core of this study, related genres of international law theory, ceremonial theory and political and state science are also taken into account. From the viewpoint of this diplomatic theory, the following section examines the ways in which the instruments and practices of diplomacy were aligned to the new framework. These ranged from changes in the structural framework of diplomacy to the evolution of norms and procedures of negotiation, international law and ceremonial. Part IV reconsiders the issue of 'professionalism' in diplomatic theory with regard to the preparation and training of diplomats. Special attention is given to proposals for diplomatic 'academies', which are for the first time examined in comparison. Finally, section V recasts the findings of this thesis in a comparative perspective. It underlines that, with the emergence of a states-system, the techniques of diplomacy became formalised and uniform, constituting a common European diplomatic practice. Against the background of the different regional and structural conditions, the alleged model role of France in the evolution of diplomatic theory and practice is re-evaluated.

A presente pesquisa visa a construir uma biografia histórico-intelectual do folclorista, militante tradicionalista e escritor sul-rio-grandense Luiz Carlos Barbosa Lessa (1929-2002). O objetivo do trabalho é analisar sua trajetória intelectual e sua obra para acessar o processo de construção/atualização das representações sociais sobre a figura do gaúcho pampiano e a elaboração de projetos coletivos de identidade regional e de “invenção de tradições” nela baseados, desenvolvidos, principalmente, na segunda metade do século XX. Apresento, primeiramente, algumas considerações sobre o “tripé” teórico que baliza a análise: o conceito de representação, segundo as considerações de Pierre Bourdieu e Roger Chartier, fundamenta a forma de ler a construção social da realidade; a noção de tradição, a partir da avaliação da proposta de Eric Hobsbawm, ilumina o papel dos símbolos e dos ritos neste processo; o termo projeto, seguindo a formulação de Gilberto Velho, liga vida e obra, trajetória e teoria, política e identidade. As conclusões mostram que as respostas de Barbosa Lessa, nos anos 1950, para as críticas da geração “realista” de escritores regionalistas à literatura romântica precedente conciliam ambas as posições no desenho do novo “gaúcho a cavalo”, possibilitando, de um lado, o “resgate” do mito como base para a reivindicação do amparo social governamental ao campesino rio-grandense e, de outro, o apelo ao “popular” como foco da ritualização efetivada nos palcos dos Centros de Tradições Gaúchas (CTGs). Em sua intervenção no debate identitário local, Barbosa Lessa incorpora outros sujeitos em sua narrativa sobre a formação social do Rio Grande do Sul e dá voz àqueles grupos calados ou marginalizados, como o negro, a mulher (inventada como “prenda”, na ética e na estética tradicionalista), o índio e o imigrante. Se o gaúcho pampiano continua sendo o centro de suas atenções, ele acaba costurado e reconfigurado por elementos culturais de origem social e mesmo étnica diversa. Nos final dos anos 1970, inicia-se uma tensão, nas diretrizes da Secretaria de Cultura, Desporto e Turismo do Estado (SCDT), sob direção de nosso personagem, e, a seguir, em seus escritos, entre essa perspectiva agregadora, de inspiração folclorista, e outra tradicional e “lusitanista”, de inspiração historiográfica. Sua resolução, em favor do primeiro pólo, só se dá com a intervenção de Lessa nos debates internos do tradicionalismo e na defesa do gauchismo em geral das críticas acadêmicas, nos anos 1980. Busco, nesse sentido, atentar para as especificidades do discurso memorialista, que possibilitaram enunciações carregadas de afetividade na conciliação de tradicionalistas com os dissidentes nativistas e na contenda com os intelectuais universitários. Assim, de um Rio Grande luso e brasileiro "agauchado" pelo meio, chegamos, em seu projeto, a outro Rio Grande plenamente "gaúcho" porque cindido pela diversidade e pela mudança. / This work aims to construct an intellectual biography of the folclorist, tradicionalist movement‟s activist and writer Luiz Carlos Barbosa Lessa (1929-2002). It is our objective to analyze his trajectory and his written production to access the process of construction of the social representations about the brazilian gaucho and the collective projects of regional identity and “invention of traditions” in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) during the second half of the twentieth century. First of all, I introduce some theoretical considerations about: a) the social construction of reality through the concept of “representation”, according to Pierre Bourdieu and Roger Chartier; b) the role of symbols and rituals in this process through Eric Hobsbawm‟s notion of “invention of tradition”; c) the connection between life and literature, trajectory and theory, politics and identity provide by Gilberto Velho‟s concept of “project”. The findings show Barbosa Lessa‟s answers to the contests in regionalist literature during the 1940‟s harmonize romantic and realistic positions to fabricate a new pattern of “gaucho on horseback”. His perspective enables the use of this myth to reclaim State social support to the “rio-grandense” peasant. To the other side, it allows the popular appeal in the construction of symbols and rituals for the gaucho traditionalist movement. In his intervention in the regional identity debate, Barbosa Lessa adds, in his narrative about the social formation of Rio Grande do Sul, another subjects and groups symbolically marginalized, like African element, women (invented as “prenda”) and immigrants. Whether the gaucho continues in the center of attention of Lessa, his new model is set of cultural elements with diverse social, and including ethnic, origin. In the late 1970‟s, a tension starts, in the guidelines of the Rio Grande do Sul‟s State Secretary of Culture, under his direction, and, later, in his writings, between this open perspective, inspired in folklore, and another more traditional, inspired in historiography. The resolution in favor of the first pole of the tension just happens when Barbosa Lessa intermediates the internal dispute in traditionalist movement and defends the “gauchismo”, in general, criticized by a new generation of university intellectuals, in the 1980‟s. So, I intend to show the specificities of the memorials‟ discourse that enable emotional enunciations in the reconcilement of traditionalist activists and the dissidence “nativista” and, either, in his controversy with academic professors. Thus, the image of “Rio Grande do Sul” changes from a Portuguese and Brazilian State turned gaucho by the characteristics of the environment to another absolutely gaucho because of his cultural variety and transformation condition.

H.P. Blavatsky’s (1831-1891) Theosophy has been defined as central to the history of modern Western spirituality and esotericism, yet to this date no major study has mapped and analysed the major themes of Blavatsky’s writings, how Blavatsky used the concept ‘Theosophy’ or to what extent she was engaged with the intellectual contexts of her time. Thus the purpose of this thesis is to fill this gap. The proposed theoretical framework is based on the centrality of language in the production of intellectual products, such as texts—but contrary to the dominant focus on strategies, rhetoric and power this thesis will focus on the construction of meaning coupled with a set of methodological tools based on contextual analysis, intellectual history and intertextuality. In addition to an overview of Blavatsky research this thesis will map and analyse Blavatsky’s use of the concept ‘Theosophy’ as well as Blavatsky’s primary discourses, identified as: (1) discourse for ancient knowledge, (2) discourse against Christian dogmatism, (3) discourse against the modern natural sciences and materialism, (4) discourse against modern spiritualism, (5) discourse for system and (7) discourse for universal brotherhood. In mapping and analysing Blavatsky’s discourses, it was found that her construction of meaning was significantly interconnected with broader intellectual contexts, such as ‘modern historical consciousness’, ‘critical enlightenment ideas’, studies in religion, studies in mythology, the modern sciences, spiritualism, systemic philosophy, reform movements and practical ethics. It, for example, becomes clear that Blavatsky’s search for an ancient ‘Wisdom Religion’ was actually a part of a common intellectual occupation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that her critique of the Christian dogmas was equally a common intellectual trend. To read Blavatsky’s discourses as the idiosyncratic strategies of an esotericist, isolated from their larger contexts or only engaged with them in order to legitimise minority views would therefore largely fail to account for the result of this thesis: that in historical actuality, they were a part of the larger cultural web of meaning.

[pt] A presente tese propõe a análise da produção intelectual do cubano José Martí, com foco em seus estudos sobre a sociedade norte-americana do século XIX, observada durante o período de mais de uma década (1880-1895). As fontes que formam o cerne do objeto de investigação são o conjunto de crônicas publicadas em diferentes periódicos da América Hispânica, comumente chamados de Escenas Norteamericanas. A investigação da base filosófica que constituiu a visão de mundo do autor; sua interpretação acerca do significado da modernidade, a realização do exercício de perspectiva, propiciado pela experiência do exílio; o diálogo com as correntes históricas do pensamento social norte-americano, sobretudo o abolicionismo, o pensamento reformador, o debate da forma da vida religiosa em interação com a vida política, o anarquismo e o socialismo, nos permite valorizar a compreensão da história dos Estados Unidos por ele investigada, de um modo que destacou a importância da análise da vida espiritual para uma consideração correta da história e da cultura desta sociedade. Desse modo, a literatura, a filosofia, o pensamento social e político foram os elementos essenciais e indissociáveis de seu exercício de interpretação histórica. / [en] The present thesis proposes the analysis of the intellectual production of the Cuban Jose Marti, focusing on his studies on the American society of the 19th century, observed during the period of more than a decade (1880-1895). The sources that form the core of the object of investigation are the set of chronicles published in different periodicals of Hispanic America, commonly called Escenas Norteamericanas. The investigation of the philosophical basis that constituted the world view of the author; his interpretation of the meaning of modernity, the realization of the exercise of perspective, propitiated by the experience of exile; the dialogue with the historical currents of American social thought, especially abolitionism, reformist thought, the debate of the form of religious life in interaction with political life, anarchism and socialism, allows us to value the understanding of the history of the United States by him investigated, in a way that emphasized the importance of the analysis of spiritual life for a correct consideration of the history and culture of this society. In this way, literature, philosophy, social and political thought were the essential and inseparable elements of his exercise of historical interpretation.

A presente pesquisa visa a construir uma biografia histórico-intelectual do folclorista, militante tradicionalista e escritor sul-rio-grandense Luiz Carlos Barbosa Lessa (1929-2002). O objetivo do trabalho é analisar sua trajetória intelectual e sua obra para acessar o processo de construção/atualização das representações sociais sobre a figura do gaúcho pampiano e a elaboração de projetos coletivos de identidade regional e de “invenção de tradições” nela baseados, desenvolvidos, principalmente, na segunda metade do século XX. Apresento, primeiramente, algumas considerações sobre o “tripé” teórico que baliza a análise: o conceito de representação, segundo as considerações de Pierre Bourdieu e Roger Chartier, fundamenta a forma de ler a construção social da realidade; a noção de tradição, a partir da avaliação da proposta de Eric Hobsbawm, ilumina o papel dos símbolos e dos ritos neste processo; o termo projeto, seguindo a formulação de Gilberto Velho, liga vida e obra, trajetória e teoria, política e identidade. As conclusões mostram que as respostas de Barbosa Lessa, nos anos 1950, para as críticas da geração “realista” de escritores regionalistas à literatura romântica precedente conciliam ambas as posições no desenho do novo “gaúcho a cavalo”, possibilitando, de um lado, o “resgate” do mito como base para a reivindicação do amparo social governamental ao campesino rio-grandense e, de outro, o apelo ao “popular” como foco da ritualização efetivada nos palcos dos Centros de Tradições Gaúchas (CTGs). Em sua intervenção no debate identitário local, Barbosa Lessa incorpora outros sujeitos em sua narrativa sobre a formação social do Rio Grande do Sul e dá voz àqueles grupos calados ou marginalizados, como o negro, a mulher (inventada como “prenda”, na ética e na estética tradicionalista), o índio e o imigrante. Se o gaúcho pampiano continua sendo o centro de suas atenções, ele acaba costurado e reconfigurado por elementos culturais de origem social e mesmo étnica diversa. Nos final dos anos 1970, inicia-se uma tensão, nas diretrizes da Secretaria de Cultura, Desporto e Turismo do Estado (SCDT), sob direção de nosso personagem, e, a seguir, em seus escritos, entre essa perspectiva agregadora, de inspiração folclorista, e outra tradicional e “lusitanista”, de inspiração historiográfica. Sua resolução, em favor do primeiro pólo, só se dá com a intervenção de Lessa nos debates internos do tradicionalismo e na defesa do gauchismo em geral das críticas acadêmicas, nos anos 1980. Busco, nesse sentido, atentar para as especificidades do discurso memorialista, que possibilitaram enunciações carregadas de afetividade na conciliação de tradicionalistas com os dissidentes nativistas e na contenda com os intelectuais universitários. Assim, de um Rio Grande luso e brasileiro "agauchado" pelo meio, chegamos, em seu projeto, a outro Rio Grande plenamente "gaúcho" porque cindido pela diversidade e pela mudança. / This work aims to construct an intellectual biography of the folclorist, tradicionalist movement‟s activist and writer Luiz Carlos Barbosa Lessa (1929-2002). It is our objective to analyze his trajectory and his written production to access the process of construction of the social representations about the brazilian gaucho and the collective projects of regional identity and “invention of traditions” in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) during the second half of the twentieth century. First of all, I introduce some theoretical considerations about: a) the social construction of reality through the concept of “representation”, according to Pierre Bourdieu and Roger Chartier; b) the role of symbols and rituals in this process through Eric Hobsbawm‟s notion of “invention of tradition”; c) the connection between life and literature, trajectory and theory, politics and identity provide by Gilberto Velho‟s concept of “project”. The findings show Barbosa Lessa‟s answers to the contests in regionalist literature during the 1940‟s harmonize romantic and realistic positions to fabricate a new pattern of “gaucho on horseback”. His perspective enables the use of this myth to reclaim State social support to the “rio-grandense” peasant. To the other side, it allows the popular appeal in the construction of symbols and rituals for the gaucho traditionalist movement. In his intervention in the regional identity debate, Barbosa Lessa adds, in his narrative about the social formation of Rio Grande do Sul, another subjects and groups symbolically marginalized, like African element, women (invented as “prenda”) and immigrants. Whether the gaucho continues in the center of attention of Lessa, his new model is set of cultural elements with diverse social, and including ethnic, origin. In the late 1970‟s, a tension starts, in the guidelines of the Rio Grande do Sul‟s State Secretary of Culture, under his direction, and, later, in his writings, between this open perspective, inspired in folklore, and another more traditional, inspired in historiography. The resolution in favor of the first pole of the tension just happens when Barbosa Lessa intermediates the internal dispute in traditionalist movement and defends the “gauchismo”, in general, criticized by a new generation of university intellectuals, in the 1980‟s. So, I intend to show the specificities of the memorials‟ discourse that enable emotional enunciations in the reconcilement of traditionalist activists and the dissidence “nativista” and, either, in his controversy with academic professors. Thus, the image of “Rio Grande do Sul” changes from a Portuguese and Brazilian State turned gaucho by the characteristics of the environment to another absolutely gaucho because of his cultural variety and transformation condition.

Submitted by isabela.moljf@hotmail.com (isabela.moljf@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-16T10:37:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 rhuanfernandesgomes.pdf: 2497778 bytes, checksum: 7e42ada3d455c53b8449c67fc5d60457 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-05-16T15:57:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 rhuanfernandesgomes.pdf: 2497778 bytes, checksum: 7e42ada3d455c53b8449c67fc5d60457 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-16T15:57:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rhuanfernandesgomes.pdf: 2497778 bytes, checksum: 7e42ada3d455c53b8449c67fc5d60457 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-31 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / Este trabalho se debruça sobre a recepção das pinturas do Grão Vasco na historiografia da arte de Luís Reis Santos (1898-1967). Crítico, connoisseur e colecionador, escreveria duas obras sobre Vasco Fernandes, publicadas em 1946 e 1962, que sucessivamente citadas até nossos dias, praticamente pacificam o tema. Estes textos são aqui abordados a partir da compreensão de que uma operação historiográfica pode ser entendida por meio da combinação do lugar social do historiador, das práticas científicas de seu meio e de sua escrita, repletos de experiências e expectativas. O objetivo principal é compreender como, e também por que, para que, para quem, Luís Reis Santos, em seu contexto bastante específico – político, social ou intelectual – construiu seu próprio entendimento da pintura do Grão Vasco, desconstruindo um mito e criando um novo. / This dissertation focuses on the reception of the Grão Vasco’s paintings in the Luís Reis Santos’s (1898-1967) historiography of art. Critic, connoisseur and collector, Reis Santos wrote two works about this painter, published in 1946 and 1962, successively cited until our days, that virtually pacify the subject. These texts are addressed here based on the comprehension that a historiographical operation can be understood through a combination of the social historian place, with their scientific practices and his writing, full of experiences and expectations. The main objective is to realize how, and also why, for what, to whom, Luís Reis Santos, in his very specific context - political, social or intellectual - built his own understanding of the Grão Vasco’s paintings, deconstructing a myth and raising a new on.

This study explores the relationship between fascism, fascist ideas, and environmental consciousness in Britain during the pre- and post-World War II decades. In examining this topic, two main questions arise. First, why did fascist intellectuals support environmentally conscious ideas, and how did they relate these positions to their political ideologies? Second, why were many environmentally conscious thinkers during this period attracted to fascism? This thesis will also address several related issues regarding fascism and environmental consciousness. These issues include what role environmental concerns played in the British Union of Fascist’s platforms and in fascism’s public appeal, and how that role changed as the party’s needs and goals changed. This project also addresses how former members of the BUF drew attention to environmental issues after World War II, and how such ideas related to broader environmental discussions taking place in Britain at the time.

Russia and Iran have been subject to mutual influence since the reign of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629). For most of the time this relationship was not one of equals: since the early nineteenth century and lasting at least until 1946, Russia and then the USSR, in strong competition with Britain, had been gradually, and for the most part steadily, increasing its political, cultural and economic influence within Iran up to very high levels. Nevertheless, the history of Russian/Soviet-Iranian relations still remains understudied, particularly in English-language scholarship. One of the main reasons for this gap must be sought in the hampered access of Western researchers to Russian archives during the Soviet time, which made them draw on Russian-language literature, traditionally pre-occupied with the history of social movements, and with the mechanical retelling of political and economic processes. Thus the cultural and political ties of the two countries on institutional and individual levels (especially during the period surrounding 1917), the influence of Russia, and then of the USSR, on Iran and vice versa, in political, economic and cultural spheres through the activities of individuals, as well as the methods and tools used by the “Big Northern neighbour” during the execution of its foreign policy towards Iran did not receive proper attention, and thus lack detailed analysis. This research addresses the lack of detailed analysis of the power/knowledge nexus in relation to Russia’s Persian/Iranian Studies – the largest and most influential sub-domain within Russia’s Oriental Studies during the late Imperial and the early Soviet periods. The specific focus of this study is the involvement of Russian ‘civilian’ (academic) and ‘practical’ (military officers, diplomats, and missionaries) Persian Studies scholarship in Russian foreign policy towards Persia/Iran from the end of the nineteenth century up to 1941 – a period witnessing some of the most crucial events in the history of both countries. It is during this period that Persia/Iran was the pivot of Russia’s Eastern foreign policy but at the same time almost every significant development inside Russia as well as in her Western policies also had an immediate impact on this country – the state of affairs that ultimately culminated in the second Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. My thesis is based on extensive research in eleven important political, military and academic archives of Russia and Georgia, which allowed me to consult a significant amount of hitherto unpublished, often still unprocessed and only recently declassified, primary sources. While engaging with notions such as Orientalism, my analysis aims at transcending Edward Said’s concept of a mere complicity of knowledge with imperial power. My theoretical approach builds on Michel Foucault’s conceptualisation of the interplay of power/knowledge relations, his notion of discourse, and his writings on the role of the intellectual. While demonstrating the full applicability of the Foucauldian model to the Russian case through the study of the power/knowledge nexus in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia’s Persian Studies, or Iranology, I focus on the activities of scholars and experts within their own professional domains and analyse what motivated them and how their own views, beliefs and intentions correlated with their work, how their activities were influenced by the hegemonic discourses within Russian society. I analyse the interaction of these intellectuals with state structures and their participation in the process of shaping and conducting foreign policy towards Iran, both as part of the Russian scholarly community as a whole and as individuals on the personal level. For the first time my work explores at such level of detail the specific institutional practices of Russia’s Oriental Studies, including the organisation of scholarly intelligence networks, the taking advantage of state power for the promotion of institutional interests, the profound engagement with Russia’s domestic and foreign policy discourses of the time, etc. In addition, the thesis presents a detailed assessment of the organisation of Iranology as a leading sub-domain within the broader scholarly field of Oriental Studies in the period from the end of the nineteenth century to 1941 and analyses the principles and mechanisms of its involvement in Russia’s foreign policy towards Persia/Iran.

This thesis is primarily concerned with the literary aspects of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its immediate focus rests on the evolution of the Islamic republican poetic trend, encompassing both the disillusioned and conformist voices that rose to prominence in the course of the 1979 Revolution and their on-going engagement with the ruling political power. In this vein, this thesis investigates the various cultural policies of the state, as well as select political transformations of the past three decades, all of which played a pivotal role in this literary evolution. The thesis shows how the official poets that emerged during the 1979 Revolution, and which proved significantly active throughout the immediate history subsequent to that event (war with Iraq, the death of Ayatollah Khomeini and the rise and fall of the reform movement), evolved over time and thereby either received political support for their commitment to the state ideology or became gradually excluded from official cultural institutions. Finally, this thesis reviews the manner in which state strategies have shaped an institutionalised form of poetry that is monitored and reinforced by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and official cultural authorities. It demonstrates how an innate linking of the project of Islamic republican literature to underlying ideologically defined notions such as 'religious verse', 'legitimate poetry' and 'commitment' was and continues to be an intrinsic part of the literary foundations of the ideological apparatus of the Islamic Republic.

Notre thèse étudie la position et la fonction qu’occupa le philosophe Erich Rothacker (1888-1965) dans le champ philosophique et scientifique allemand de son temps. Elle retrace l’évolution de sa politique intellectuelle de la République de Weimar à l’après-guerre, évolution qu’il faut lire comme un processus de redéfinition de son historisme conservateur face aux contextes historiques successifs. Tandis que son activité sous la République de Weimar fut guidée par sa volonté d’imposer un paradigme d’historisme polémique et idéologisé, l’avènement du national-socialisme l’a conduit, après une phase d’étroite adhésion, à redéfinir cet historisme, qui devint progressivement (et non sans quelques ambiguïtés) un simple paradigme épistémologique désidéologisé. C’est au terme de cette évolution que Rothacker put influencer dans l’après-guerre la réflexion de certains de ses étudiants devenus par la suite célèbres, tels Jürgen Habermas, Karl-Otto Apel et Hermann Schmitz. Outre qu’elle répond à plusieurs questions jusqu’à présent en suspens dans la littérature secondaire sur Rothacker (relatives à son rapport au nazisme, ou encore au rôle – éminent mais paradoxal – qu’il joua au sein du champ théorique de son temps), notre étude de sa politique intellectuelle met ainsi en évidence deux phénomènes qui dépassent le cadre de son analyse stricto sensu : le mouvement – commun à plusieurs penseurs – de radicalisation puis de déradicalisation du conservatisme intellectuel allemand au cours du 20ème siècle, et l’existence d’une ligne de continuité souterraine de la pensée historiste dans l’Allemagne de l’après-guerre en dépit de l’ostracisme dont cette tradition faisait alors l’objet. / Our dissertation investigates the position in, and function of, the german philosopher Erich Rothacker (1888-1965) within the philosophical and scientific fields of his time. It traces the developments in Rothacker’s intellectual politics from the Weimar Republic into the post-war world – a development that can be interpreted as a process of redefining his conservative historicism within the framework of changing historical contexts. While his work was guided by the aim of promoting a polemic and ideologised paradigm of historicism at the time of the Weimar Republic, Rothacker, faced with the national-socialist regime, subsequently redefined this historicism after a period of enthusiastic endorsement with the National-Socialists. Rothacker’s historicism thus gradually developed (though not without remnants of ambiguity) into a purely epistemological paradigm, stripped of all ideology. As a consequence of this development Rothacker succeeded in the post-war era in influencing the thought of several of his students who were to become well-known intellectual figures, such as Jürgen Habermas, Karl-Otto Apel and Hermann Schmitz. Besides offering answers to some questions concerning Rothacker that remain unanswered in critical discourse to this day – such as his relationship to Nazism, or his role within the theoretical field of his time – our analysis provides a picture of two phenomena transcending Rothacker’s own person: the deradicalization of German intellectual conservatism in the course of the twentieth century, and the persistence of historicist thought in post-war Germany despite the ostracism that this tradition was subjected to in the decades following the war.