Non-Fiction
The Fire of Freedom

Feuer der Freiheit
©商周出版


Simone de Beauvior, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Ayn Rand. With great narrative skill, Wolfram Eilenberger deschribes in his latest book the dramatic lives of the most influential female philosophers of the 20th century. In the midst of the turmoil of the Second World War, they laid the foundation for a truly free, emancipated society as fugitives and resistance fighters, ostracized and enlightened women.


The years 1933 to 1945 mark the darkest chapter of European modern time. Facing the catastrophe of the Second World War, four female philosophers - Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Ayn Rand and Hannah Arendt, developed their visionary ideas: regarding the relationship between individual and society, between man and woman, between sex and gender, between freedom and totalitarianism, between God and man.

Adventurous journeies took them from Stalin's Leningrad to Hollywood, from Hitler's Berlin and the occupied Paris to New York. Most importantly, without their revolutionary thoughts, our present and our future, just would not be the same anymore.

As refugeses, activists, or resistance fighters, their pure existences prove to be living philosophy and bear impressive witness to the liberating power of thought.

A wonderful book about four global icons, who at the abyss of the 20th century exemplarily embodied what it means to live a truly free life, and who still have an impact till today.

The Chinese translated version is now available at the library of Goethe-Institut Hongkong.

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