The New Student's Reference Work/Nordau, Max Simon

Nor′dau, Max Simon, a Hungarian physician and author, the most ardent of Zionists, was born at Budapest, July 29, 1849, of Jewish ancestry.  He came into public notice by his work entitled Degeneration, published in 1895, in which he argued powerfully in defense of the proposition that the occidental nations are degenerating, morally, mentally and physically.  He held that in politics, society and faith the age is thoroughly decadent.  The work evoked many replies, which kept it continually before the public.  He had been writing for almost twenty years before, but only a few of his volumes had been translated into English.  The best known of his works are Paradoxes and The Malady of the Century.  Since the publication of Degeneration, he has issued The Comedy of Sentiment, The Right to Love, The Drones must Die and others of limited circulation.