Levine’s book bridges German and Jewish culture

Posted on February 25, 2014

Repost from Campus Weekly

Dr. Emily Levine (History) has a new book that bridges German history, philosophy, art, economics, and Jewish culture. “Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School” has been published by University of Chicago Press. It tells the story of the emergence of an unlikely trio of illustrious German-Jewish intellectuals, Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Erwin Panofsky, in 1920s Hamburg. “The recent discovery of a new trove of Nazi-looted art in Germany has awoken us to the world of culture and ideas that was lost when Hitler came to power,” she says. “My book tells the forgotten story of Hamburg’s emergence as a center of that early 20th century intellectual world. In Germany’s commercial city, these German-Jewish scholars unexpectedly created an innovative school of art history, philosophy and cultural history. “Dreamland of Humanists” opens a window to an influential pre-war German-Jewish scholarly circle that transformed how we think about art and culture today.” Levine will have a book talk and signing at Beth David Synagogue in Greensboro on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 10 a.m. and at the Weatherspoon Art Museum on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 5:30 p.m. She is an assistant professor of Modern European History. Her research centers on the intersection of German Jews, European culture and intellectual history.

Read more news