Mr. Gay wrote groundbreakg books on the Enlightenment, Sigmund Frd and the cultural suatn of Jews Germany.
Contents:
- PETER GAY, HISTORIAN WHO EXPLORED SOCIAL HISTORY OF IAS, DI AT 91
- ALUMN, HISTORIAN PETER GAY DI AT AGE 91
- IN MEMORIAM: PETER GAY
- PETER GAY OBUARY
- PETER GAY
PETER GAY, HISTORIAN WHO EXPLORED SOCIAL HISTORY OF IAS, DI AT 91
* peter gay historian *
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. 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’s reputatn as one of the pre-ement historians of his generatn. 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 were both assiated, nonrelig Jews nourished by and trapped a Germanic culture whose anti-Semic unrcurrents gathered strength around them.
ALUMN, HISTORIAN PETER GAY DI AT AGE 91
Gay’s most personal and anguished historil wrg, notably the says “Frd, Jews and Other Germans” (1978) and the tobgraphil “My German Qutn: Growg Up Nazi Berl” (1998). 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.
IN MEMORIAM: PETER GAY
Gay was forced out of his school, and his father’s gentile partner appropriated the glassware bs.
PETER GAY OBUARY
Gay attend bs school and tght himself English by readg magaz like Time and Collier’s. Gay changed to s English graduatg om the Universy of Denver 1946, Mr.
PETER GAY
Gay entered Columbia Universy, where he earned a master’s gree history 1947 and a Ph. Gay wrote “Voltaire’s Polics” a revisnist spir. Gay signaled a Frdian turn his terpretatn of history that was ratified by his formal psychoanalytic trag the 1970s.
Gay’s Frdian tour of the 19th century long on lorful stanc but short on analytic rigor, suggtive rather than persuasive. Gay’s nonil thkers. Gay remaed an unignorable historian long after his retirement.