Thomas Mann's World: Empire, Race, and the Jewish Question offers a comprehensive reevaluation of one of Germany’s most celebrated literary giants by situating his life and fiction squarely within the Age of Empire. Rather than viewing Mann strictly as an idealized, cosmopolitan voice of tolerance or dismissing him entirely as a clandestine anti-Semite, Kontje presents a nuanced portrait of a deeply "worldly" author whose personal prejudices and anxieties reflected the global realities of imperial conquest, nationalism, and conflict. By tracing the evolution of Mann's work—including Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, and Joseph and his Brothers—the book examines how Mann’s representations of Jews and foreign others intersected with a persistent, lifelong fascination with racial difference and his own complex identity. Ultimately, this essential text provides literary scholars with a critical framework for understanding how Mann’s highly autobiographical fiction captured not just the internal spirit of the German nation, but the broader geopolitical tensions of a rapidly globalizing world.