Weimar in Princeton: Thomas Mann and the Kahler Circle. By Stanley Corngold. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. xiii + 192 Seiten. $81.00 hardcover, $24.25 paperback, $19.40 e-book.

postwar editions of his works emphasized the transatlantic connection further. Mann’s postwar status was shaped by forces outside of Germany. Soon, however, political developments required once again that Mann reconceive his role in the global literary community. The Cold War politicized world literature, reshaping it from a commons of many cultures to a binary construct juxtaposing two worldviews and value systems—East and West, Communism and capitalism—and writers were expected to stand with one or the other. In the U.S., “official circles turned away from” (249) Mann when he would not unequivocally denounce Communism but promoted peace with the Soviet Union. Accusations of being a Communist sympathizer did not hurt his position as a cultural leader, yet ultimately prompted him to leave the U.S. for Switzerland in 1952. Back in Europe, he used his final years to promote again the image of the writer as independent of political and social developments and as a champion of humanity—as he had done in the 1930s. The five interludes of Thomas Mann’s War are dedicated to works published between 1938 and 1948, which Boes links to Mann’s shifting self-image in a world where cultural and literary communities were in flux. Boes argues, for instance, that with Lotte in Weimar Mann proposed that the role of the representative writer does not rely on personal experience, but is a construct of literary criticism and other cultural forces over time. Just how correct this assessment was has become clear in the wake of the publication of Mann’s diaries starting in 1975: revealing his sexual interest in men, it shifted the focus from Mann’s public to his private life and changed the reception of his works, biography, and public engagement. Thomas Mann’s War is a fascinating read and an important contribution to Mann scholarship. Moreover, it furthers our understandings of the dynamics effecting shifts in twentieth-century cultural, political, and media landscapes, of the manner in which the perception of writers is shaped, and of their role in creating and defending an autonomous artistic and literary sphere. The subject of the émigré writer during times of war and authoritarian governments is most topical today. Boes’s excellent study is highly interdisciplinary, and its jargon-free language makes it accessible to a broad audience. Some prior familiarity with Mann’s biography is helpful to fully appreciate the intricacies of the dynamics Boes describes. The book will appeal to academics and non-academics interested in history, politics, culture, and media, and scholars will welcome the extensive bibliography and index.