First published in 1907, Vitalism: On the Tracks of Life is a tour de force and one of the clearest expositions of vitalist thought ever written. Grounded in the work of Nietzsche, Stendhal and the author's own studies in anthropology, S ra brilliantly lays out his 'principal thesis-the identification of aristocracy, physical superiority, and repugnance to work.' With a frankness that is remarkable for its time, he spells out the role of the sexual impulse in society, the relation of work and leisure to higher culture, the psychological and physiological type of the higher man and the genius, the interplay of North and South in the formation of European civilization, and many other topics. This new edition includes a new Introduction on the history of vitalist thought in biology and philosophy and the place of Gioacchino Leo S ra. 'A detached individualism, courage in every form, the spirit of initiative and enterprise, the love of adventure, of war, and of the chase, of the unknown
