A Cultural History of the Modern Age: Renaissance and Reformation
A Cultural History of the Modern Age: Renaissance and Reformation (Volume 1) Egon Friedell, Allan Janik (Introduction)
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 1412807492
DDC: 940.21
Edition: Paperback; 2008-03-31
Summary:
Historian, philosopher, critic, playwright, journalist, and actor,
Egon Friedell was a key figure in the extraordinary flowering of
Viennese culture between the two world wars. His masterpiece, A
Cultural History of the Modern Age, demonstrates the intellectual
universality that Friedell saw as guarantor of the continuity and
regeneration of European civilization. Following a brilliant opening
essay on cultural history and why it should be studied, the first
volume begins with an analysis of the transformation of the Medieval
mind as it evolved from the Black Death to the Thirty Years War. The
emphasis is on the spiritual and cultural vortex of civilization, but
Friedell never forgets the European roots in pestilence, death, and
superstition that animate a contrary drive toward reason, refinement,
intellectual curiosity, and scientific knowledge. While these values
reached their apogee during the Renaissance, Friedell shows that each
cultural victory is precarious, and Europe was always in danger of
slipping back into barbarism. Friedell’s historical vision embraces
the whole of Western culture and its development. It is a consistent
probing for the divine in the world’s course and is, therefore,
theology; it is research into the basic forces of the human soul and
is, therefore, psychology; it is the most illuminating presentation
of the forms of state and society and, therefore, is politics; the
most varied collection of all art-creations and is, therefore,
aesthetics. Thomas Mann regarded Friedell as one of the great
stylists in the German language., Like the works of the great
novelist, A Cultural History of the Modern Age offers a dramatic
history of the last six centuries, showing the driving forces of each
age. The new introduction provides a fascinating biographical sketch
of Friedell and his cultural milieu and analyzes his place in
intellectual history.
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