Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) was one of the greatest historians of the nineteenth century. He was professor of History and the History of Art at the University of Basel from 1858 to 1893, and was a mentor to Friedrich Nietzsche.
Dr. Oswyn Murray is CUF Lecturer in Ancient History, Faculty of Classics, at Oxford University, and director of an international project entitled Bibliotheca Academica Translationum, investigating the diffusion of classical studies through the translation of works of scholarship in Europe, 1700-1920.
"Not only a rich overview of Burckhardt's learning but a precious glimpse into the intellectual world of the late nineteenth century." --The New Yorker "A corrective to the rather gaga idealism of 'the Greek spirit'...lively." --George Wills, The New York Times Book Review "This book will become a necessary tool in courses not only on nineteenth-century historiography, but on the ancient world as well." --Publishers Weekly
With a masterful application of brevity, classicist Murray (Oxford Univ.) has edited Burckhardt's series of 19th-century lectures on Greek civilization. Burckhardt's reputation as the first cultural historian was established with the 1872 publication of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. As laid out in Murray's excellent introduction, Burckhardt's contemporaries attacked his efforts in Greek history both because they did not consider him an ancient historian and because, contrary to standard practice, Burckhardt used only primary sources. Burckhardt claimed that the Greeks were essentially different from modern Europeans, thus flouting his colleagues' new field of scientific philology. Further, Burckhardt saw a fundamental pessimism in Greek culture. For him, the "glory that was Greece" was nothing more than a modern myth based on the idealization of Greek art and Athenian democracy. Burckhardt's artistic (albeit occasionally opaque) blending of the forces that defined ancient Greece is fascinating and timely. Recommended for all history collections.‘Claibourne G. Williams, Ferris State Univ., Big Rapids, MI
"Not only a rich overview of Burckhardt's learning but a precious glimpse into the intellectual world of the late nineteenth century." --The New Yorker "A corrective to the rather gaga idealism of 'the Greek spirit'...lively." --George Wills, The New York Times Book Review "This book will become a necessary tool in courses not only on nineteenth-century historiography, but on the ancient world as well." --Publishers Weekly
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