Peter (Jack) Gay - Works, Reference

Historian, born in Berlin, Germany. Emigrating to the USA as a youth (and changing his name that in German means ‘joyous’ or ‘gay’) he took degrees in political science and history (PhD Columbia University, 1951), and later took a degree in psychoanalysis (1983). He taught at Columbia (1947–69) before becoming Sterling Professor of History at Yale (1969). He is known for his often controversial reassessments of broad topics such as the Enlightenment, 19th-c middle-class culture, and the art and politics of imperial and Weimar Germany. He presents his findings in books that reach out beyond the academic disciplines and community, such as The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (2 vols, 1966, 1969) and his study, The Bourgeois Experience (2 vols, 1984–5). He also had a lifelong interest in Sigmund Freud and published a biography, Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988).

Peter Gay (June 20, 1923-), a Jewish American historian of the social history of ideas, born in Berlin as Peter Joachim Fröhlich . Gay received his education at the University of Denver, where he was awarded a BA in 1946 and at Columbia University where he was awarded an MA in 1947 and PhD in 1951. Gay worked as political science professor at Columbia between 1948-1955 and as history professor from 1955-1969.

Gay's first interest was in intellectual history. His 1959 book, Voltaire's Politics examined Voltaire as a politician and the how his politics influenced the ideas that Voltaire championed in his writings. Gay followed the success of Voltaire's Politics with a wider history of the Enlightenment, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, for which he was honored with a National Book prize and the Mecher Book prize. Gay's 1968 book, Weimar Culture was considered at the time to be a ground-breaking cultural history of the Weimar Republic. Starting in 1978 with Freud, Jews and Other Germans, an examination of the impact of Freudian ideas on German culture, Gay has became increasing interested in psychology. Gay is a leading champion of Psychohistory, and is a follower of Sigmund Freud. Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University (retired 1993). Jewish Distinction Award Nobel Prize (1492)

Works

The Dilemma of Democratic Socialism: Eduard Bernstein's Challenge to Marx, 1952. The Party of Humanity: Essays in the French Enlightenment, 1964. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation: The Rise of Modern Paganism, 1966. The Loss of Mastery: Puritan Historians in Colonial America, 1966. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation: The Science of Freedom, 1969. The Bridge of Criticism: Dialogues on the Enlightenment, 1970. The Enlightenment; The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud - 5 vols, 1984-1998 (includes The Education of the Senses and The Cultivation of Hatred) Freud for Historians, 1985. The Tender Passion, 1986. Sigmund Freud and Art: His Personal Collection of Antiquities, 1993. The Cultivation of Hatred, 1993. The Naked Heart, 1995. The Enlightenment and the Rise of Modern Paganism revised edition, 1995.

Reference

Toews, John "Historicizing Psychoanalysis: Freud in His Time and of Our Time" pages 504-545 from Journal of Modern History, Volume 63, 1991.