Sociology of the Renaissance - Softcover

"The Renaissance is here studied as a mutation in social thought, linking medieval and modern ideologies. . . . This refreshingly good translation sets forth the interaction of vested and acquired interests and attitudes in a dynamic period of history."

--John H. Mueller, American Journal of Sociology

"Presents a unified treatment of the sociological aspects of the Renaissance. . . . Only a master of the subject could have so clearly revealed the social dynamic of the movement in its origin, its full tide, and its recession. . . . This synthesis is a valuable contribution to the literature of the Italian Renaissance."

--Frederick E. Welfle, The Catholic Historical Review

"This is a smooth translation of a work first published in Germany in 1932. . . . The slender book shows the roots of the author's scholarship to be solidly embedded in history."

--Frederic C. Church, The American Historical Review

"A review of the main lines of social, cultural, and economic change from the close of the Middle Ages through the late Renaissance, summarizing the cultural and sociological import of the body of historical materials on the period, gathered by modern European scholars. . . . The work has an important relation to the folk-urban approach largely associated with Redfield."

--John W. Bennett, American Anthropologist

"Now that the scholarly world is once again discussing the origins and trajectory of capitalism, Gertrud Lenzer has done us a great service in offering us a new and explanatory version of von Martin's original and important, and unfortunately neglected, contribution to the general debate."

--Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

Alfred von Martin is "a forgotten yet distinguished German scholar of the Renaissance and humanism together with Karl Brandi, Alfred Doren, and Walter Goetz, to name only a few." --Gertrud Lenzer, Brooklyn College and CUNY

"It is good news that Alfred von Martin's classic essay on the sociology of the Renaissance is in print once again, and even better news that it comes accompanied by a perceptive introduction by Gertrud Lenzer, who replaces the essay in its historical context but also points to its enduring value for sociologists as well as for historians."

--Peter Burke, Cambridge University

"Now that the scholarly world is once again discussing the origins and trajectory of capitalism, Gertrud Lenzer has done us a great service in offering us a new and explanatory version of von Martin's original and important, and unfortunately neglected, contribution to the general debate."

--Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

"Alfred von Martin's Sociology of the Renaissance has long been a touchpoint for historians of the Renaissance. Since its first publication in German in 1932 and sole English translation in 1944, it has provided a counterweight, briefer in scope but more grounded in material reality, to Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), offering a brilliant analysis of that era's intellectual and, it might be said, spiritual identity. For that reason alone, its republication now, after the succeeding eight decades of prodigious scholarly exploration of the many dimensions of the Renaissance, is greatly welcome. Yet, however great is the importance of Sociology of the Renaissance as a pioneering work in the domain of Renaissance studies, it is even greater in another: the attempt to understand the conflicted relationship between intellectual culture and political crisis. The book was published, as Gertrud Lenzer observes in her masterful introduction to the new edition, in response to the Nazi takeover: as a "warning to Germany ... about the dangers of despotism and tyranny told metaphorically by way of [von Martin's] study of the Renaissance"; and in that spirit was published in English translation twelve years later in London by another great twentieth-century intellectual, the Jewish sociologist Karl Mannheim, who had been targeted by that regime. Set in that framework, von Martin's work looms large indeed as a key to the century past and to our own era, which once again sees the humanities, and humanity itself, in crisis."

--Margaret L. King, Brooklyn College, CUNY

"Gertrud Lenzer's preface not only resurrects a great and pioneering classic in the social history of the Renaissance but also offers an analysis of one of the founding authors of early twentieth- century social thought, along with Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Werner Sombart. Going beyond the political history associated with Ranke and cultural history with Burckhardt, Alfred von Martin (Lenzer's own teacher and friend ) presents a post- (and non-) Marxian analysis of early modern class structure in its relation to humanist thought and culture. The subject is "the Renaissance and the spirit of capitalism," and it is joined to an explanation of the relations between the "new elite of merchants and bankers, new modes of thought, the flourishing of the natural sciences, new developments in the arts and in the arts" and the mentality of the bourgeoisie in its association with the humanist intelligentsia. For von Martin this analysis also threw light on early twentieth-century society in crisis in the times of the Weimar Republic and Hitler. Lenzer's presentation is a brilliant performance, entirely worthy of her great forebear."

--Donald Kelley, Rutgers University

"It is good news that Alfred von Martin's classic essay on the sociology of the Renaissance is in print once again, and even better news that it comes accompanied by a perceptive introduction by Gertrud Lenzer, who replaces the essay in its historical context but also points to its enduring value for sociologists as well as for historians."

--Peter Burke, Cambridge University

"Now that the scholarly world is once again discussing the origins and trajectory of capitalism, Gertrud Lenzer has done us a great service in offering us a new and explanatory version of von Martin's original and important, and unfortunately neglected, contribution to the general debate."

--Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

"Alfred von Martin's Sociology of the Renaissance has long been a touchpoint for historians of the Renaissance. Since its first publication in German in 1932 and sole English translation in 1944, it has provided a counterweight, briefer in scope but more grounded in material reality, to Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), offering a brilliant analysis of that era's intellectual and, it might be said, spiritual identity. For that reason alone, its republication now, after the succeeding eight decades of prodigious scholarly exploration of the many dimensions of the Renaissance, is greatly welcome. Yet, however great is the importance of Sociology of the Renaissance as a pioneering work in the domain of Renaissance studies, it is even greater in another: the attempt to understand the conflicted relationship between intellectual culture and political crisis. The book was published, as Gertrud Lenzer observes in her masterful introduction to the new edition, in response to the Nazi takeover: as a "warning to Germany ... about the dangers of despotism and tyranny told metaphorically by way of [von Martin's] study of the Renaissance"; and in that spirit was published in English translation twelve years later in London by another great twentieth-century intellectual, the Jewish sociologist Karl Mannheim, who had been targeted by that regime. Set in that framework, von Martin's work looms large indeed as a key to the century past and to our own era, which once again sees the humanities, and humanity itself, in crisis."

--Margaret L. King, Brooklyn College, CUNY

"Gertrud Lenzer's preface not only resurrects a great and pioneering classic in the social history of the Renaissance but also offers an analysis of one of the founding authors of early twentieth- century social thought, along with Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Werner Sombart. Going beyond the political history associated with Ranke and cultural history with Burckhardt, Alfred von Martin (Lenzer's own teacher and friend ) presents a post- (and non-) Marxian analysis of early modern class structure in its relation to humanist thought and culture. The subject is "the Renaissance and the spirit of capitalism," and it is joined to an explanation of the relations between the "new elite of merchants and bankers, new modes of thought, the flourishing of the natural sciences, new developments in the arts and in the arts" and the mentality of the bourgeoisie in its association with the humanist intelligentsia. For von Martin this analysis also threw light on early twentieth-century society in crisis in the times of the Weimar Republic and Hitler. Lenzer's presentation is a brilliant performance, entirely worthy of her great forebear."

--Donald Kelley, Rutgers University

-It is good news that Alfred von Martin's classic essay on the sociology of the Renaissance is in print once again, and even better news that it comes accompanied by a perceptive introduction by Gertrud Lenzer, who replaces the essay in its historical context but also points to its enduring value for sociologists as well as for historians.-

--Peter Burke, Cambridge University

-Now that the scholarly world is once again discussing the origins and trajectory of capitalism, Gertrud Lenzer has done us a great service in offering us a new and explanatory version of von Martin's original and important, and unfortunately neglected, contribution to the general debate.-

--Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

-Alfred von Martin's Sociology of the Renaissance has long been a touchpoint for historians of the Renaissance. Since its first publication in German in 1932 and sole English translation in 1944, it has provided a counterweight, briefer in scope but more grounded in material reality, to Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), offering a brilliant analysis of that era's intellectual and, it might be said, spiritual identity. For that reason alone, its republication now, after the succeeding eight decades of prodigious scholarly exploration of the many dimensions of the Renaissance, is greatly welcome. Yet, however great is the importance of Sociology of the Renaissance as a pioneering work in the domain of Renaissance studies, it is even greater in another: the attempt to understand the conflicted relationship between intellectual culture and political crisis. The book was published, as Gertrud Lenzer observes in her masterful introduction to the new edition, in response to the Nazi takeover: as a -warning to Germany ... about the dangers of despotism and tyranny told metaphorically by way of [von Martin's] study of the Renaissance-; and in that spirit was published in English translation twelve years later in London by another great twentieth-century intellectual, the Jewish sociologist Karl Mannheim, who had been targeted by that regime. Set in that framework, von Martin's work looms large indeed as a key to the century past and to our own era, which once again sees the humanities, and humanity itself, in crisis.-

--Margaret L. King, Brooklyn College, CUNY

-Gertrud Lenzer's preface not only resurrects a great and pioneering classic in the social history of the Renaissance but also offers an analysis of one of the founding authors of early twentieth- century social thought, along with Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Werner Sombart. Going beyond the political history associated with Ranke and cultural history with Burckhardt, Alfred von Martin (Lenzer's own teacher and friend ) presents a post- (and non-) Marxian analysis of early modern class structure in its relation to humanist thought and culture. The subject is -the Renaissance and the spirit of capitalism,- and it is joined to an explanation of the relations between the -new elite of merchants and bankers, new modes of thought, the flourishing of the natural sciences, new developments in the arts and in the arts- and the mentality of the bourgeoisie in its association with the humanist intelligentsia. For von Martin this analysis also threw light on early twentieth-century society in crisis in the times of the Weimar Republic and Hitler. Lenzer's presentation is a brilliant performance, entirely worthy of her great forebear.-

--Donald Kelley, Rutgers University