Imagined Germany Richard Wagner's National Utopia, Second Edition

"Salmi makes an important contribution to our understanding of one of the most fascinating artistic figures in German politics and culture, particularly his political role."—Michael Meyer, California State University, Northridge
"Salmi lays forever to rest the myth, propagated by some of Wagner's older apologists and by many of his more recent critics, that there existed a communality of interests between Wagner and Bismarck, as well as between the new 'Reich' and the Wagnerian cultural enterprise. Salmi shows, more clearly than anyone has done thus far, how Wagner at first styled himself as the 'most German of Germans' only to realize, in the end, that he had been crucified 'am Kreuz des deutschen Gedankens'."—Hans Rudolf Vaget, Smith College