Johann Gottfried Herder initiated the modern disciplines of philosophical anthropology and cultural history, including the study of popular culture. He is also remembered as a sharp critic of colonialism and imperialism. But what types of social, economic and political arrangements did Herder envision for modern European societies? Herder and Enlightenment Politics provides a radically new interpretation of Herder's political thought, situating his ideas in Enlightenment debates on modern patriotism, commerce and peace. By reconstructing Herder's engagement with Rousseau, Montesquieu, Abbt, Ferguson, Möser, Kant and many other contemporary authors, Eva Piirimäe shows that Herder was deeply interested in the potential for cultural, moral and political reform in Russia, Germany and Europe. Herder probed the foundations of modern liberty, community and peace, developing a distinctive understanding of human self-determination, natural sociability and modern patriotism as well as advocating a vision of Europe as a commercially and culturally interconnected community of peoples.

Runner-up, 2023 Constance Blackwell Prize, International Society for Intellectual History

Winner, 2023 István Hont Book Prize, Institute of Intellectual History, University of St Andrews

Finalist, 2026 Laura Shannon Prize, Nanovic Institute for European Studies

Winner, 2025 Prizes in Literature, the Arts and Science, Baltic Assembly

Short Listed, 2026 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies (Humanities), Nanovic Institute for European Studies

‘… a concise, erudite, and well-written study … Eva Piirimäe’s study masterfully fulfills the goals it sets itself, namely “to provide a full-bodied and nuanced historical reconstruction” of Herder’s evolving political thought.’

Kirill Ospovat Source: Monatshefte

‘Eva Piirimäe’s Herder and Enlightenment Politics deserves recognition as a landmark study inthe scholarship of both Johann Gottfried Herder, and of eighteenth century political thought more broadly.’

Andrew Walker Source: History of European Ideas

‘… a concise, erudite, and well-written study of some of the primary strains of Herder’s thought in their interrelationships, traced through all phases of his evolution, from the 1760s to 1800s. For readers who, like the present reviewer, are not already Herder experts but are interested in Enlightenment intellectual history, the book offers an informative, original, and well-contextualized introduction to Herder’s thought and its place in multiple philosophical and political debates.’

Kirill Ospovat Source: Monatshefte

‘An excellent contribution to recent Herder scholarship in the English language … a considerable achievement with a great deal of scholarly merit for which the author should be highly commended. It is a valuable contribution to the field that I unhesitatingly recommend not only to those interested in Herder’s political thought, but also to those interested more generally in the intellectual history of patriotism in Europe in the late eighteenth century.’

Vicki A. Spencer Source: Herder Yearbook

‘A great book, which will, I hope, greatly expand the scholarly appreciation of [Herder’s] thinking in English-speaking circles … with exceptionally deep and broad consideration and contextualization of Herder’s voluminous writings, putting his many essays and arguments into their specific historical, political, and spatial environs, and posing them against the writings of others that he was reading and responding to at specific points in time … I suspect that I will not be alone in therefore finding myself, especially as an English-speaking fan of Herder’s life and ideas, very much in Piirimäe’s debt.’

Russell Arben Fox Source: The European Legacy