Contents -- List of Illustrations -- About this Book -- Myths -- Selfhood and Responsibility -- Sovereign Impunity -- Self-Cultivation -- Historical Responsibility -- Our Approach -- Myths of the Self -- Progress -- Systems of Violence -- The Self -- Academic Traditions -- Our Challenge -- The German Sisyphus -- The Source of Meaning -- Slave Narratives -- The Nazi Past -- Responsible Selfhood -- The Happy Burden of History -- Lies -- The Kaiser's New Clothes -- Our Lying Selves -- Our Approach -- The Ease of Being Duped -- Nietzsche on Vanity -- Nietzsche on Hypocrisy -- Social Lies -- Theodora's Aspirations -- Social Climbing -- Fascist Lies -- The Sincere Deceiver -- The Dupe's Paradox -- Why We Believe Liars -- Theodora's Decision in Principle -- The Lie of Normalcy -- Hans the Perfect Aryan -- Hans the Bystander -- Hans and Heinrich -- Performing Lies -- Goffman on Selling the Self -- Brecht on Performing the Self -- Galy Gay the Performer -- Galy Gay and the Soldiers -- Galy Gay the Poseur -- Galy Gay the Murderer -- The Lie of Coherence -- Benjamin on History -- Benjamin on the Self -- Brecht on Forbearance -- Metz on Remembrancing -- Hans in Fragments -- Owning Up to Our Lies -- Non-Conformity -- A Walk in the Woods -- Our Unruly Selves -- Our Approach -- Acting on Principle -- Kant on Ethics -- Nietzsche on Resentment -- Adolescent Rebellion -- Working for Utopia -- Schreyer's New Man -- Gerhard and Hartmut -- In the Middle of Things -- Hasenclever's Son -- Rejecting Politics -- The Conviction to Have No Convictions -- Theodora the Unpolitical -- The Algermissen Civil War -- Sovereign Impunity -- Günther the Non-Conformist -- Theodora the Führerin -- Theodora the Teacher -- Everyday Knowledge -- How We Take Sides -- Arendt on the New -- Nietzsche on the Child -- The Unruliness of the Child -- Thilly and Sarah.

Ruth and an Anonymous Hitler Youth -- Irony -- Yes, Hitler, No? -- Our Ironic Self -- The Challenge of Irony -- Our Approach -- Defining Irony -- Hamann on Reason -- Irony and Dialectics -- Irony as Criticism -- Liberating Irony -- Hamann on Enlightenment -- Brecht on Bourgeois Theater -- Reinhard in Bourgeois Society -- Ironic Politics -- Some Idiot -- Macheath the Generous -- Reinhard the Clever -- Too Clever -- The Consequences of Nihilism -- Jürgen the Apprentice -- Jürgen the Hitler Youth -- Jürgen the Mechanic -- Jürgen and Sarah -- Committing Irony -- Hamann on Intersubjectivity -- Brecht's Mother Courage -- Anna's Choices -- Larmore on Committing Ourselves -- Beauvoir on Maneuvering in Doubt -- The Finish -- Outside Himmelsthür -- Epic Scholarship -- Macular Degeneration -- Open Models -- One Way To Imagine It -- Bibliography -- Interview Collections -- Books etc.