Hans Kohn

American philosopher and historian

Hans Kohn (, September 15, 1891 – March 16, 1971) was an American philosopher and historian. He pioneered the academic study of nationalism, and is considered an authority on the subject.

Kohn was born into a German speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia, then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire. After graduating from a local German Gymnasium (high school) in 1909, he studied philosophy, political science and law at the German part of Charles Ferdinand University in Prague. Shortly after graduation, in late 1914 Kohn was called into the infantry of the Austro Hungarian Army. Following training he was sent to the Eastern Front in the Carpathian Mountains, facing the Imperial Russian Army. He was captured in 1915 and taken by the Russians to a prison camp in Central Asia (in present day Turkmenistan). During the civil war following the Bolshevik revolution, the pro western Czechoslovak Legions came into Central Asia and he was set free. With them he traveled further east (called by Czechs the "Siberian Anabasis"), until stopping at Irkutsk. The political situation then allowed him to return to Europe, arriving in 1920. Kohn then lived in Paris, where he married Jetty Wahl in 1921. The couple moved to London, where Kohn worked for Zionist organizations and wrote articles for newspapers. He moved to Palestine in 1925. From there he would frequently visit the United States. His writings began to generate books, where he discussed current geopolitics and nationalism. In 1929, he wrote a resignation letter from Keren HaYesod titled "Judaism is Not Zionism". Eventually the couple immigrated to America in 1934. They had one son, Immanuel Kohn.

Kohn taught modern history at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. From 1948 to 1961, he taught at City College of New York. He also taught at the New School for Social Research, Harvard Summer School. He wrote numerous books on nationalism, Pan Slavism, German thought, and Judaism. He was an early contributor to the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. In 1944, he published his major work, The Idea of Nationalism, on the dichotomy between western and eastern Nationalism. Kohn sought to understand the emergence of nationalism through the development of western civilization and the rise of liberalism. He also published a biography of Martin Buber. His autobiography, published in 1964, includes reflections on his times and his personal life.