Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are

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Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are is a tale of two philosophical journeys - one made by John Kaag as an introspective young man of nineteen, the other seventeen years later, in radically different circumstances: he is now a husband and father, and his wife and small child are in tow. Kaag sets off for the Swiss peaks above Sils Maria where Nietzsche wrote his landmark work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both of Kaag's journeys are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche's philosophy, yet they deliver him to radically different interpretations and, more crucially, revelations about the human condition.

Just as Kaag's acclaimed debut, American Philosophy: A Love Story, seamlessly wove together his philosophical discoveries with his search for meaning, Hiking with Nietzsche is a fascinating exploration not only of Nietzsche's ideals but of how his experience of living relates to us as individuals in the twenty-first century.

Bold, intimate, and rich with insight, Hiking with Nietzsche is about defeating complacency, balancing sanity and madness, and coming to grips with the unobtainable. As Kaag hikes, alone or with his family, but always with Nietzsche, he recognizes that even slipping can be instructive. It is in the process of climbing, and through the inevitable missteps, that one has the chance, in Nietzsche's words, to 'become who you are'.

Reviews

Kaag has a pleasingly wry, compact style, and is particularly interesting on thinkers that Nietzsche influenced heavily -- Steven Poole * Guardian *
A thoughtful mix of biography and memoir * Observer *
[Kaag] writes extremely well... clearly and with scholarly precision, but also personally and stylishly... An excellent introduction to Nietzsche's big ideas [and] Kaag brings a remarkable set of skills to the project... Remarkable * TLS *
A fantastically well-written and engaging primer on Nietzsche's life and work ... Fascinating -- Roger Cox * Scotsman *
A searing, very personal journey through John Kaag's own Nietzschean abyss -- Sue Prideaux, author * I Am Dynamite: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche *
A gripping and deeply involving weave of memoir and philosophy. In Alpine hiking, John Kaag finds the perfect analogue for Nietzsche's writings, bringing out all the risks, failures and sublimities to be discovered in each. He reminds us vividly that philosophy isn't an indulgence in hermetic abstraction, but a matter of life and death -- Josh Cohen, author * The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark *
An utterly extraordinary book about the paths we tread. It holds you very close and meticulously unravels your soul -- Derren Brown
Kaag is a lively storyteller who brings Nietzsche's life into continual contact with his own... [He] challenges his readers to be what they might become -- Steven B Smith * New York Times Book Review *
Lively... a deeply personal account of a lifelong engagement with the philosopher's works * Tatler *
[With] deft storytelling and prose of such momentum and transparencys... I'll read whatever [Kaag] writes * Literary Review *
Off-beat, painfully honest * RT *

Author Bio

John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story, which was an NPR Best Book of 2016 and a New York Times Editors' Choice. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. He lives near Boston with his wife and daughter.