Review: Spectres of Pessimism: A Cultural Logic of the Worst, by Mark Schmitt

Mark Schmitt is an associate professor of cultural studies at Dortmund Technical University, and held a Stuart Hall Doctoral Fellowship there, from which the present work has emerged. German school and university students seem universally to study English language and culture, and cultural studies in Germany presents its German students with extremely well-informed and pitch-perfect representations of British life, published in the English language. This is in marked contrast to the depleted understanding of German and other European cultures which is conveyed by the greater part of the British educational system.