Fans+of+Friedrich

Fans of Friedrich. By: AYOUB, NINA C., Chronicle of Higher Education, 00095982, 12/16/2011, Vol. 58, Issue 17

 In this article, Ms. Ayoub talks about the importance of Nietzsche before the World War I era as well as after the World War I era. Nietzsche’s at first was a small thing America, just someone people were curious about and eventually became a more serious force for liberals and “literary cosmopolitans”. Ayoub then talks about how religious officials in America were trying to stop his growing influence and prevent his anti-religion ideas from spreading. However, the clergy were unsuccessful in preventing the spread of his ideology. He ended up influencing many great American authors such as Upton Sinclair and Eugene O'Neill. It was when the Nazi’s started using his words and writing that is when people in America started associating hi words with the Nazi ideology and the distancing begun. However, after Walter  Kaufmann, wrote his book Nietzsche became popular again in America.

 This article is a very nice summary of the impact Nietzsche’s had on people and how it shaped American History. As said in the summary above, he influenced popular and great literalists such as Upton Sinclair and Eugene O’Neil. Nietzsche’s writing had the ability to make people start questioning one of the most important things around them – their religion. His writings were so impactful that he even after it was associated with Nazi martial theology it made a rebound and became popular again in America. This is because he stressed the core belief that people should live with good morals without resorting to some higher power as the answer. In order for humans to move forward intellectually they need to give up believing in religion and instead form an ideology without a higher being with good morals. This is what has constantly made him famous in America and across the world.