On the Use and Abuse of History for Life

This short booklet (basically a pamphlet) was one of Nietzsche's early writings before he became The Anti-Christ and contracted a bad case of megalomania where he would sign his letters to people as "The Crucified." The title "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life" summarizes Nietzsche's thesis with this work. Nietzsche criticizes the Germany of his time as without culture and lacking instinct, a place where a sick soulless inwardness prevails and a synthetic pseudo-kultur disguises the real feeling of the country. Nietzsche blames this phenomenon on the typical German's abstract feelings and belief in unharmed inwardness.