This edition comprises all the essential political writings by Friedrich Schlegel, Schleiermacher and Novalis, the leading figures of the early romantic circle. The texts range from essays to jottings from notebooks, and most of them have been translated for the first time.

The political thought of the German romantics covers a long period, beginning in the 1790s and extending into the 1830s. since the most important and interesting texts from this period could not all be included in one volume, I have chosen material from a single phase of romantic thought.