Hegel
A Biography

"Pinkard does an incredible job of explaining Hegel's strictly philosophical ideas and largely overcomes the barrier of Hegel's notoriously obscure style." The New York Times Book Review

"[Pinkard] does a creditable job of explaining Hegel's strictly philosophical ideas and largely overcomes the barrier of Hegel's notoriously obscure style." The New York Times Book Review

"This is a magnificent book, conceived on a grand scale and executed with scholarship, wit, and a sense of drama." International Philosophical Quarterly

"Mr. Pinkard offers a moving account of a precarious and harried life, interspersing it with lucid and not unduly long accounts of the main arguments of Hegel's works....Mr. Pinkard has written engrossingly of a supreme instance of the life dedicated to thinking." Richard Velkley, The Washington Times

"By now it is clear that Terry Pinkard offers the most rounded, richly filled-out picture of Hegel, as both philosopher and man, that we have ever had in English. This will quickly become the standard biography of Hegel, and richly deserves to do so. In an age of fine Hegel scholarship, this is a towering achievement." Patrick Riley, Boston Book Review

"The publishers call his book 'the first major biography of Hegel in English,' and for once they are not exaggerating. They could in fact have gone further...this is the most rounded and reliable life of Hegel there has ever been... Pinkard has separated his interpretations of the thought from his descriptions of the life..." London Review of Books

"[Pinkard] offers readers a wider window on a period of tumultuous cultural and political innovation that bears more than one fleeting relevance for our own." George R. Lucas Jr., The Sun

"In clear and modest language, Pinkard fills the breach between Hegelian Bildung (humanistic education) and the average American adult. He concisely summarizes the philosopher's key works, placing them in the larger context of Hegel's life and times. Rich details of Hegel's own person - his Napoleonic haircut, wooden lecture style and 'very characteristic smile' - enrich a narrative of operatic scope, complete with mad poet friend (Holderlin), illegimate son (Ludwig Fischer) and philosophical nemesis (J.F. Fries). Hegel's philosophy, which finessed contradiction, mirrored the contradictions in his life. The portrait that emerges wins sympathy and understanding. Pinkard frees Hegel from the obscurity that unfairly clouds his memory and shows him, stunningly, for who he really was: an early modern version of ourselves." Publishers Weekly (April 10, 2000)

"Terry Pinkard's Hegel is one of the best introductions available to the philosophy of Hegel...Anyone who wants to know what Hegel had to say, and why it is still important, could do no better than begin with this biography." Political Affairs