Postdoctoral Researcher, Ruhr University Bochum; Visiting Fellow, History Department, Harvard University
February 8, 2017
4:10pm - 6:00pm
Hoffmann Room, Adolphus Busch Hall
The discipline of Intellectual History has followed remarkably
different paths in different countries. While the discipline has
arguably established itself more successfully as a distinctive field of
research in the US and Great Britain than anywhere else, Germany can
claim to have to oldest discipline of Intellectual History. Wilhelm
Dilthey and Friedrich Meinecke both produced important works in the late
19th and early 20th centuries that paved the way for the development of
Ideengeschichte and Geistesgeschichte. However, despite its rich
historical heritage, Ideen- and Geistesgeschichte ran into choppy waters
throughout the 20th century and have only recently re-emerged in the
German historical profession. This lecture will sketch the complicated
history of Ideen- and Geistesgeschichte from the late 19th century to
today and will locate some of the central themes and research interests
in Ideen- and Geistesgeschichte today.