In this book, the distinguished historian Carl Schorske--author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fin-de-Siécle Vienna --draws together a series of essays that reveal the changing place of history in nineteenth-and twentieth-century cultures. In most intellectual and artistic fields, Schorske argues, twentieth-century Europeans and Americans have come to do their thinking without history. Modern art, modern architecture, modern music, modern science--all have defined themselves not as emerging from or even reacting against the past, but as detached from it in a new, autonomous cultural space. This is in stark contrast to the historicism of the nineteenth century, he argues, when ideas about the past pervaded most fields of thought from philosophy and politics to art, music, and literature. However, Schorske also shows that the nineteenth century's attachment to thinking with history and the modernist way of thinking without history are more than just antitheses. They are different ways of trying to address the problems of modernity, to give shape and meaning to European civilization in the era of industrial capitalism and mass politics. Schorske begins by reflecting on his own vocation as it was shaped by the historical changes he has seen sweep across political and academic culture. Then he offers a European sampler of ways in which nineteenth-century European intellectuals used conceptions of the past to address the problems of their day: the city as community and artifact; the function of art; social dislocation. Narrowing his focus to Fin-de-Siécle Vienna in a second group of essays, he analyzes the emergence of ahistorical modernism in that city. Against the background of Austria's persistent, conflicting Baroque and Enlightenment traditions, Schorske examines three Viennese pioneers of modernism--Adolf Loos, Gustav Mahler, and Sigmund Freud--as they sought new orientation in their fields. In a concluding essay, Schorske turns his attention to thinking about history. In the context of a postmodern culture, when other disciplines that had once abandoned history are discovering new uses for it, he reflects on the nature and limits of history for the study of culture. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. -- "Kirkus Reviews"

Reading Shakespeare Historically is a passionate, provocative book by one of the most renowned and popular Renaissance scholars writing today. Charting ten years of critical development, these challenging, witty essays shed new light on Renaissance studies. It also raises intriguing questions about how the culture and history of the past illuminates the key social and political issues of today. Lisa Jardine re-reads Renaissance drama in its historical and cultural context, from laws of defamation in Othello to the competing loyalties of companionate marriage and male friendship in The Changeling. In doing so she reveals a wealth of new insights, sometimes surprising but always original and engrossing. At the same time, these essays also provide a fascinating account of the rise of feminist scholarship since the 1980s and the diversifying of `new historicist' approaches over the same period. Reading Shakespeare Historically will fascinate and provoke students of shakespeare and his historical age, and general readers with an urge to understand how the culture and history of our past illuminates the key scoial and political issues of today.

A fascinating exploration of art from the Renaissance to modern times by one of America's most distinguished art historians. Focusing on specific masterpieces like Michelangelo's David , Bernini's image of the Sun King, and Picasso's lithographs of bulls, Lavin addresses creations that seek to define the present expressly in terms of the past. "I am an inveterate source-monger. My work, i.e., the actual labor I expend in archives, libraries, museums, churches, etc., is mainly that of a prospector digging and sifting to find a rare and shiny nugget--a work of art, a significant text, an idea--sufficiently analogous and available to suggest it might actually have been pertinent to the matter at hand." Thus does Irving Lavin venture forth, and the treasures he finds are brought back to us in these seven essays. The past plays an explicit role in his explorations. In focusing on specific works such as Donatello's bronze pulpits in San Lorenzo, Bernini's image of the Sun King, and Picasso's lithographs of bulls, Lavin addresses creations that seek to define the present expressly in terms of the past. Also, he persuasively shows how art can portray human individuality within philosophical, religious, political, ideological, and cultural frameworks. Originally delivered as part of the Una's Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, the essays show the richness of the artists' sources by tracing certain motifs and traditions back in time. Generously accompanied by photographs that illustrate Lavin's explorations, this is a work of importance to both art historians and lovers of art. A fascinating exploration of art from the Renaissance to modern times by one of America's most distinguished art historians. Focusing on specific masterpieces like Michelangelo's David , Bernini's image of the Sun King, and Picasso's lithographs of bulls, Lavin addresses creations that seek to define the present expressly in terms of the past. "I am an inveterate source-monger. My work, i.e., the actual labor I expend in archives, libraries, museums, churches, etc., is mainly that of a prospector digging and sifting to find a rare and shiny nugget--a work of art, a significant text, an idea--sufficiently analogous and available to suggest it might actually have been pertinent to the matter at hand." Thus does Irving Lavin venture forth, and the treasures he finds are brought back to us in these seven essays. The past plays an explicit role in his explorations. In focusing on specific works such as Donatello's bronze pulpits in San Lorenzo, Bernini's image of the Sun King, and Picasso's lithographs of bulls, Lavin addresses creations that seek to define the present expressly in terms of the past. Also, he persuasively shows how art can portray human individuality within philosophical, religious, political, ideological, and cultural frameworks. Originally delivered as part of the Una's Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, the essays show the richness of the artists' sources by tracing certain motifs and traditions back in time. Generously accompanied by photographs that illustrate Lavin's explorations, this is a work of importance to both art historians and lovers of art.