Jacob Burckhardt's Social and Political Thought

292 Pages·2004·14.849 MB·English

by  Richard Sigurdson

JACOB BURCKHARDT'S
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT
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RICHARD SIGURDSON
Jacob Burckhardt's
Social and Political Thought
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Incorporated 2004
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-4780-7 (cloth)
Printed on acid-free paper
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Sigurdson, Richard Franklin
Jacob Burkhardt's social and political thought / Richard Sigurdson
Includes bibliograhical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-4780-7
1. Burckhardt, Jacob, 1818-1897 - Political and social views.
I. Title.
DI5.B8S54 2004 907.202 C2003-906791-2
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
To my parents, Frank and Helen Sigurdson
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Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: A New Dimension to Burckhardt? 3
Part One: Burckhardt and the Birth of Cultural History
1 A Historian in Troubled Times 19
2 Cultural versus Political History: Burckhardt and Ranke 59
3 Burckhardt's Cultural History: Philosophy, Style, and Poetry 87
Part Two: Burckhardt's Social and Political Thought
4 Elements: Scepticism, Organicism, and Human Nature 131
5 Themes: Freedom, the State, and Society 164
6 Burckhardt and Nietzsche: Two Critiques of Modernity 198
Conclusion: An Astute Political Thinker 221
Notes 227
References 261
Index of Names 271
Index of Subjects 277
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Preface
This is a book about the political ideas of the nineteenth-century Swiss
cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97). He is one of those think-
ers relatively well known among educated people, but not so promi-
nent as to be immediately recognizable by everyone. His book on The
Culture of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) is still widely read by succes-
sive new cohorts of students and scholars. As well, his name crops up
in studies of European history, culture, art, architecture, painting, and
so on. He is usually regarded as a venerable old-style scholar with
wise things to say on a number of weighty topics. Aside from his
groundbreaking hypothesis about the nature of the Renaissance, his
lectures on the Greeks and his reflections on the general course of
events in world history are the most often quoted by learned writers.
There are also many Burckhardt admirers among professional histori-
ographers and philosophers of history. His pioneering work in cul-
tural history and his emphasis on historical style, they tell us, provide
useful lessons for contemporary scholars. Of course, there is also a
small but hard-core group of devoted Burckhardt scholars who have
mined the archives and produced a treasure trove of scholarship. Pri-
marily their work is published in German, though there is a rich and
profound English-language literature as well. The cradle of Burckhardt
scholarship is at his home university in his beloved home city of Basel,
Switzerland, where monumental efforts have been made to dissemi-
nate his work, analyse its historical significance, and celebrate his
achievements. Most stunning in this regard is the complete, critical
edition of Burckhardt's writings currently under preparation. Twenty-
seven volumes are planned, some of which have now appeared. The
final work will include multiple volumes containing previously un-
published or partially published material.