The Birth of Tragedy, first Nietzsche's books. It was republished in 1886 as The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism. An Attempt at Self-Criticism, wherein Nietzsche commented on this very early work. In this book Nietzsche characterizes the conflict between two distinct tendencies - the Apollonian and Dionysian. Nietzsche describes in this book how from Socrates onward the Apollonian had dominated Western thought, and raises German Romanticism as a possible reintroduction of the Dionysian to the salvation of European culture...