Dynamische Stofflehre angewandt auf das kosmische Leben [“The Dynamic Theory of Matter.”]

HESS, MOSES (MORITZ).

Paris & Leipzig

1800

Second edition. Frontispiece portrait. Five fold-out plates of the cosmos. Inscribed by the Author’s widow (see below).

Issued by Hess’s wife Sibylle, following his death in 1875. Written by the “father of modern socialist Zionism,” this scientific work also draws on philosophical theories influenced by Hegel and Feuerbach. Hess was an early proponent of socialism, and a close friend and collaborator to both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. However Hess increasingly grew reluctant to base history solely upon economic causes and class struggle (as Marx and Engels did), and came to view the struggle of races, or nationalities, as the prime moving factor in history. From this perspective Hess arrived at the notion of a Jewish national revival, which resulted in his work “Rome & Jerusalem” (1862), a precursor to Herzl’s “Judenstaat.” Inscription reads: "M. Hess, father of German Socialists, was noble in his fight for the liberation and the equality of material goods for all people. No one should have to suffer poverty. Born on January 21, 1812 in the city of Bonn on the Rhine, died in Paris on April 5 [i.e. 6], 1875."