Uprooted by the war, exposed to the full brunt of economic dislocation, and fearful of losing status in face of the growing might of big business and organized labor, the middle classes in Weimar Germany longed for a solution to their plight that neither the capitalism nor the socialism of their day could offer. This work examines the attempts of a number of scholars and publicists—Sombart, Salin, Spann, Niekisch, Spengler, and Fried-to provide such a solution in the form of an ideology of social conservatism.

Originally published in 1969.

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