Description
A landmark book from one of the truly original scholars of our time a magnificent revelation of turn of the century Vienna where out of a crisis of political and social disintegration so much of modern art and thought was born Not only is it a splendid exploration of several aspects of early modernism in their political context it is an indicator of how the discipline of intellectual history is currently practiced by its most able and ambitious craftsmen It is also a moving vindication of historical study itself in the face of modernism s defiant suggestion that history is obsolete David A Hollinger History Book Club Review Each of the seven separate studies can be read separately Yet they are so artfully designed and integrated that one who reads them in order is impressed by the book s wholeness and the momentum of its argument Gordon A Craig The New Republic A profound work on one of the most important chapters of modern intellectual history H R Trevor Roper front page The New York Times Book Review Invaluable to the social and political historian as well as to those more concerned with the arts John Willett The New York Review of Books A work of original synthesis and scholarship Engrossing Newsweek
