Peter Gay, historian who wrote about Frd and the Enlightenment, di - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• PETER GAY OBUARY
• PETER GAY
• PETER GAY, HISTORIAN WHO EXPLORED SOCIAL HISTORY OF IAS, DI AT 91
• PETER GAY, HISTORIAN WHO WROTE ABOUT FRD AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT, DI
• SEARCH - LIST OF BOOKS BY PETER GAY
• PETER GAY BOOKS
• ALUMN, HISTORIAN PETER GAY DI AT AGE 91

PETER GAY OBUARY

The first volume, subtled The Rise of Morn Paganism, was wily acclaimed far beyond the amic world, and won the Natnal Book award the first volume, subtled The Rise of Morn Pagansim, of Peter Gay’s massive study, was wily acclaimed far beyond the amic world In his encyclopedic The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Frd (five volum between 1984 and 1998), Gay explored wonrfully readable prose a wi range of aspects of the European – pecially the Brish, French and German – and the North Amerin middle class their heyday. But taken together, they are a fundamental text for anyone who wish to unrstand bourgeois culture the 19th and early 20th was, sentially, the culture to which Gay was born, Berl, as Peter Joachim Fröhlich, the son of Helga and Morz, a small bsman of left-leang views and liberal habs of md.

Ined, Peter led a charmed life, beg admted to a grammar school unr the Nazis bee his father was a rated and war-wound army veteran and survivg the early years of the Third Reich whout any great difficulty as a blond, blue-eyed boy who did not nform to the Nazi image of a Jewish person any his engrossg memoir, My German Qutn: Growg up Nazi Berl (1998), Gay nfsed that he enuntered antisemism personally only on the very rart of ocsns: once, when, unually, a teacher clared that “Jews always exaggerate” (a remark to which he attributed his later ncern for precisn his historil wrgs), and 1936 when the fay went by r on a tour of Germany and enuntered a notice outsi a village sayg: “Jews are not wanted here. It means happy, jolly or gay, and they chose the last of the three nam, only for Peter to start receivg hate-mail years later, as the rise of the gay liberatn movement ma homophob thk his surname was a polil studied at the Universy of Colorado, Denver, then took a master’s gree at Columbia Universy, New York, 1947, and a doctorate polil science four years later, on the leadg “revisnist” social mocrat of the Kaiser’s Germany, Eduard Bernste, wh whose views he to a large extent intified.

PETER GAY

But was not a path that Gay followed his amic reer: stead, he went another directn tght at Columbia om 1947 to 1969, beg profsor 1962, and was then at Yale up to his retirement 1993.

PETER GAY, HISTORIAN WHO EXPLORED SOCIAL HISTORY OF IAS, DI AT 91

His Frdianism was often applied wh a light touch, however, as The Bourgeois Experience, and his many says and shorter books on Frd and aspects of his life and thought were not uncril their approach to the, cultured, urteo and hospable, Gay held many semars and discsns his hoe, fondly remembered by his stunts. Yee/The New York TimMay 12, 2015Peter Gay, a German-born historian whose sense of tellectual adventure led him to wre groundbreakg books on the Enlightenment, the Victorian middle class, Sigmund Frd, Weimar culture and the cultural suatn of Jews Germany, died on Tuday at his home Manhattan.

PETER GAY, HISTORIAN WHO WROTE ABOUT FRD AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT, DI

He was ath was nfirmed by his stepdghter Elizabeth Gay, a refugee om Nazi Germany, voted his reer to explorg the social history of ias, a qut that took him far om his origal area of specializatn, Voltaire and the Enlightenment. Gay to tra at the Wtern New England Instute for Psychoanalysis and motivated him to wre a revisnist psychohistory of the Victorian middle class, “The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Frd, ” whose five volum were published the 1980s and 1990s. Gay relled the pleasur of attendg the 1936 Olympics — spoiled only by the sight of Hler and Görg the stands — and the nfg mix of savage reprsn and tolerance that characterized life unr the Nazis until 1938.

SEARCH - LIST OF BOOKS BY PETER GAY

” They me out the 1980s and the 1990s, not jt the we handle rrectnsA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 25 of the New York edn wh the headle: Peter Gay, Historian and Frd Bgrapher, Di at 91. Peter Gay, a popular and prizewng historian who meticuloly traced the rise of secular Wtern thought, om a history of the Enlightenment to a bt-sellg bgraphy of Sigmund Frd, died May 12 at his home Manhattan.

Gay studied at the Wtern New England Instute for Psychoanalysis and advoted Frdian techniqu for historil scholarship, rejectg fears that the field would be rced to formulas about childhood sir and nros. Gay wrote the book’s Gay is also creded, through a seri of says and books the 1950s and ’60s, wh changg the image of Enlightenment thkers such as Voltaire om impractil ialists to astute visnari able to work wh the systems they helped overturn.

PETER GAY BOOKS

Gay helped fe the Enlightenment era as a pletn of the revival of ancient Greek culture that began wh the Gay received the Natnal Book Award 1967 for his first volume of "The Enlightenment: An Interpretatn, " subtled "The Rise of Morn Paganism. Gay changed his name upon beg an Amerin cizen 1941, makg a direct translatn of “Froelich” to graduated om the Universy of Denver 1946, then went to Columbia Universy, where he received a master’s gree 1947 and a doctorate 1951 polil tght history at Columbia om 1962 to 1969, then joed Yale as a profsor of parative and tellectual European history. Memorabily MetricsPage views of Peter Gays by languageAmong HISTORIANSContemporariIn GermanyAmong HISTORIANS In Germany Peter GayPeter Joachim Gay (né Fröhlich; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-Amerin historian, tor, and thor.

ALUMN, HISTORIAN PETER GAY DI AT AGE 91

Peter Gay is the 341st most popular historian (down om 269th 2019), the 4, 128th most popular bgraphy om Germany (down om 3, 522nd 2019) and the 45th most popular German Historian.

" (343)Consirg English belief, Gay wr: "The Englishman's need for peace after a century of upheaval and the revulsn of ted and rpectable man agast relig enthiasm alced wh the growg of thory of naturalism to produce a torpid Church and a tepid relign. " (345)Gay ntu, "there was much fort and ltle anxiety sermons purportg to prove that the urse of a Christian life was easy, the reward for good nduct was sure and glor, that God mand men nothg eher unsuable to our reason or prejudicial to our tert; nay, nothg that is severe and agast the gra of our nature, and that, on the ntrary, the laws of God are reasonable, that is sued to our nature and advantageo to our tert. I should also add that thanks to Gay's mand of the wrten word, the book is tly a joy to read; there were tim when I found myself wonrg how much I uld really be learng, given how betifully the sentenc flowed.

I suppose says somethg about the medcre standard of wrg most morn scholarly works that one's spicns should be aroed when enunterg a volume by as acplished a stylist as Peter Gay.

" -- Peter GayPeter Gay (born June 20, 1923) is Sterlg Profsor of History Emer at Yale Universy and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Wrers (1997—2003). Gay followed the succs of Voltaire's Polics wh a wir history of the Enlightenment, The Enlightenment: An Interpretatn (1969), for which he was honored wh the Natnal Book Award 1967 and the Mecher Book Prize.