Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life - Hardcover

Lerner, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 069117282X ISBN 13: 9780691172828

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The first complete biography of an influential historian whose dramatic life intersected with many great events and thinkers of the twentieth century

This is the first complete biography of Ernst Kantorowicz (1895–1963), an influential and controversial German-American intellectual whose colorful and dramatic life intersected with many of the great events and thinkers of his time. A medieval historian whose ideas exerted an influence far beyond his field, he is most famous for two books―a notoriously nationalistic 1927 biography of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and The King's Two Bodies (1957), a classic study of medieval politics.

Born into a wealthy Prussian-Jewish family, Kantorowicz fought on the Western Front in World War I, was wounded at Verdun, and earned an Iron Cross; later, he earned an Iron Crescent for service in Anatolia before an affair with a general’s mistress led to Kantorowicz being sent home. After the war, he fought against Poles in his native Posen, Spartacists in Berlin, and communists in Munich. An ardent German nationalist during the Weimar period, Kantorowicz became a member of the elitist Stefan George circle, which nurtured a cult of the "Secret Germany." Yet as a professor in Frankfurt after the Nazis came to power, Kantorowicz bravely spoke out against the regime before an overflowing crowd. Narrowly avoiding arrest after Kristallnacht, he fled to England and then the United States, where he joined the faculty at Berkeley, only to be fired in 1950 for refusing to sign an anticommunist “loyalty oath.” From there, he “fell up the ladder” to Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, where he stayed until his death.

Drawing on many new sources, including numerous interviews and unpublished letters, Robert E. Lerner tells the story of a major intellectual whose life and times were as fascinating as his work.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Ernst Kantorowicz was a magical figure who captivated everyone around him. This biography takes his measure and casts a spell of its own. Emerging from deep within the archives, Robert Lerner shows us precisely how Kantorowicz worked his magic, first in interwar Germany and then again as an émigré in the United States. This book is also a memoir, preserving precious chains of lore and reminiscence: an inspired labor of love."--Conrad Leyser, University of Oxford

"Historian, Stefan George disciple, Germanophile, and bon vivant--Ernst Kantorowicz was a matchless figure in twentieth-century intellectual life. With Robert Lerner's magisterial study, Kantorowicz has at long last gotten the biography he truly deserves."--Richard Wolin, Graduate Center, City University of New York

"With forensic archival sense and the sympathies of a subtle historian, Robert Lerner tells the story of a remarkable life against the volatile history of twentieth-century Europe and America. Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life traces the making of the scion of a bourgeois Jewish family into a patriotic soldier, a nationalist intellectual, a refugee, and finally a critic of the Cold War. His life made Eka--as he styled himself--into a most original historian who explored the making of political authority and charisma in the classic The King's Two Bodies. Lerner has written a highly readable and illuminating account of living in extraordinary times."--Miri Rubin, Queen Mary, University of London

"This amazing biography of Ernst Kantorowicz is the product of a prodigious amount of research undertaken over the past twenty-five years. There is nothing else like this anywhere. Robert Lerner has uncovered materials that I suspect are known to very few others."--John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame

"Ernst Kantorowicz, one of the most interesting and influential historians of the twentieth century, has found his ideal biographer in Robert Lerner, who as a medievalist is well versed in the many branches of Kantorowicz's scholarship. Drawing on unique sources, including important collections of unpublished letters and interviews with people who knew Kantorowicz, Lerner presents a lively, vivid picture of the historian's life and writings."--Eckhart Grünewald, author of Ernst Kantorowicz and Stefan George

About the Author:

Robert E. Lerner is professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University, where he taught medieval history for more than forty years. The author of many books, he is a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and the American Academy in Rome, and a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 069117282X
• ISBN 13: 9780691172828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 424