'First published in Germany in 1985, "Geschichte der deutschen Literatur (1730-1980)" has been widely recognized as an innovative and ambitious study of the German critical tradition ...an impressive work' - "Rocky Mountain Review". 'This effort to grasp literary criticism as a totality is unique, and yields many interesting insights into literary discourse as a political and social phenomenon' - David Bathrick, Cornell University. First published in Germany in 1985, "Geschichte der deutschen Literaturkritik" was quickly recognized as the most original and comprehensive study to date of a proud critical tradition including such giants as Lessing, Goethe, and Heine. Now translated into English, it will serve as a model for a new approach to literary history in America and elsewhere, one emphasizing the connections of criticism with other public discourse.The editor, Peter Uwe Hohendahl, has provided an introduction and a chapter, 'Literary Criticism in the Epoch of Liberalism', translated by Jeffrey S. Librett. Filling in the history of German criticism from the Enlightenment to the present are Klaus L. Berghahn of the University of Wisconsin, 'From Classicist to Classical Literary Criticism, 1730-1806', translated by John R. Blazek; Jochen Schulte-Sasse, University of Minnesota, 'The Concept of Literary Criticism in Romanticism'; Russell A. Berman, Stanford University, 'Literary Criticism from Empire to Dictatorship, 1870-1933', translated by Simon Srebrny; and, Bernhard Zimmerman, University of Tubingen, 'Developments in German Literary Criticism from 1933 to the Present', translated by Franz Blaha. Peter Uwe Hohendahl, a professor of German and Comparative Literature at Cornell University, is the author of "The Institution of Criticism" (1982) and other works.