The myth of Ernst Cassirer

Can a book be both lucidly written, highly erudite and yet completely meaningless?

It seems that it can.

"The Myth of the State" by Neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer is such a book. The positive reviewers were obviously taken in by Cassirer's unusually lucid style of writing, and by his erudition, which is considerable.

And yet, the book never really delivers. It's supposed to be an analysis of the historic and philosophical roots of modern totalitarianism. Instead, it feels like a series of disjointed essays about pretty much everything. Subjects covered include the meaning and function of myth, the exact relationship between Carlyle and Goethe, whether or not Machiavelli really was Old Nicky, the Romantic criticism of the Enlightenment, the racism of Gobineau, and countless other subjects besides. However, Cassirer never manages to weave the strands together. Interestingly, he never mentions Marx, Lenin or Nietzsche, the usual whipping boys in books of this type.

Apparently, the book is unfinished and was published posthumously. I don't deny that it may contain this or that interesting reflection, but overall it feels like a non-starter. I suspect it's mostly of interest to scholars of Neo-Kantianism. Curiously, Cassirer (or perhaps his publisher) also expected the American audience to understand Latin and German (!), since all Latin quotations and some German ones are untranslated.

Unfortunately, I cannot give "The Myth of the State" more than two stars.