Hermann Cohen was a passionate philosopher whose national engagement was an integral component of his work. This national engagement comprised a cultural 'Germanness' (Deutschtum), ethically oriented to the state, and a religious Judaism beyond the political. These two forms of "nationality" influenced Cohen’s system of philosophy and his Jewish thought from his broadest to his most subtle points.

The National Element in Hermann Cohen's Philosophy and Religion explores Cohen’s views on World War I, Zionism, Jewish orthodoxy, assimilation, and racism. Then it looks at his system: logical dispositions of the idea of nationality, the ethics of the nation-state, and Cohen's aesthetics of national elements of expression. In connection with that, the study explores the Jewish dimension of nationality, a cornerstone for the concept of revelation and communal service in Cohen’s Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism.