Theorizing the Political in Germany, 1890–1945: Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, Franz Neumann 1 Christian J. Emden Rice University, USA Richard Swedberg, The Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts, Stanford University Press: Stanford, 2005; xvi + 344 pp.; 0804750955, $24.95 (pbk) Fritz Ringer, Max Weber: An Intellectual Biography, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2004; 264 pp., 1 line drawing; 0226720055, $19 (pbk) Duncan Kelly, The State of the Political: Conceptions of Politics and the State in the Thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Franz Neumann, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2003; 378 pp.; 0197262870, £55 (hbk) Perry Myers, The Double-Edged Sword: The Cult of Bildung, Its Downfall and Reconstitution in Fin-de-Siècle Germany (Rudolf Steiner and Max Weber), Peter Lang: Oxford, 2004; 225 pp.; 3039100610, E42.80/£26 (pbk) Théodore Paléologue, Sous l’œil du Grand Inquisiteur: Carl Schmitt et l’héritage de la théologie politique, Éditions du Cerf: Paris, 2004; 320 pp.; 2204073571, E30 (pbk) Ellen Kennedy, Constitutional Failure: Carl Schmitt in Weimar, Duke University Press: Durham, NC, 2004; 272 pp.; 0822332434, $29.95/£17.50 (pbk) ‘The danger which mass democracy presents to national politics consists principally in the possibility that emotional elements will become predominant in politics.’ 2 Max Weber’s remark from 1918 is as relevant today, perhaps even more so, as it was in the final months of the First World War. Above all, his remark was clearly meant as a warning that any parliamentary democracy needs to be aware of its own limitations and contradictions. Weber’s detailed reflections on the characteristics of parliamentarianism, especially the relationship between european history quarterly  European History Quarterly Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore (www.sagepublications.com), Vol. 38(4), 608–625. issn 0265-6914. doi: 10.1177/0265691408094515