Ernst Kantorowicz - by Robert Lerner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The first complete biography of an influential historian whose dramatic life intersected with many great events and thinkers of the twentieth century

This is the first complete biography of Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963), an influential German-American medieval historian whose colorful life intersected with many of the great events and thinkers of his time. Born into a wealthy Prussian-Jewish family, he fought in World War I--earning an Iron Cross and an Iron Crescent--before being sent home following an affair with a general's mistress. Though he was an ardent German nationalist during the Weimar period, after the Nazis came to power he bravely spoke out against the regime before an overflowing crowd in Frankfurt. He narrowly avoided arrest after Kristallnacht, fleeing to England and then the United States, where he joined the faculty at Berkeley, only to be fired in 1950 for refusing to sign an anticommunist "loyalty oath." From there, he "fell up the ladder" to Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, where he wrote his masterwork, The King's Two Bodies.

Drawing on many new sources, including numerous interviews and unpublished letters, Robert E. Lerner tells the story of a major intellectual whose life and times were as fascinating as his work.

From the Back Cover

"Ernst Kantorowicz was a magical figure who captivated everyone around him. This biography takes his measure and casts a spell of its own. Emerging from deep within the archives, Robert Lerner shows us precisely how Kantorowicz worked his magic, first in interwar Germany and then again as an émigré in the United States. This book is also a memoir, preserving precious chains of lore and reminiscence: an inspired labor of love."--Conrad Leyser, University of Oxford

"Historian, Stefan George disciple, Germanophile, and bon vivant--Ernst Kantorowicz was a matchless figure in twentieth-century intellectual life. With Robert Lerner's magisterial study, Kantorowicz has at long last gotten the biography he truly deserves."--Richard Wolin, Graduate Center, City University of New York

"With forensic archival sense and the sympathies of a subtle historian, Robert Lerner tells the story of a remarkable life against the volatile history of twentieth-century Europe and America. Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life traces the making of the scion of a bourgeois Jewish family into a patriotic soldier, a nationalist intellectual, a refugee, and finally a critic of the Cold War. His life made Eka--as he styled himself--into a most original historian who explored the making of political authority and charisma in the classic The King's Two Bodies. Lerner has written a highly readable and illuminating account of living in extraordinary times."--Miri Rubin, Queen Mary, University of London

"This amazing biography of Ernst Kantorowicz is the product of a prodigious amount of research undertaken over the past twenty-five years. There is nothing else like this anywhere. Robert Lerner has uncovered materials that I suspect are known to very few others."--John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame

"Ernst Kantorowicz, one of the most interesting and influential historians of the twentieth century, has found his ideal biographer in Robert Lerner, who as a medievalist is well versed in the many branches of Kantorowicz's scholarship. Drawing on unique sources, including important collections of unpublished letters and interviews with people who knew Kantorowicz, Lerner presents a lively, vivid picture of the historian's life and writings."--Eckhart Grünewald, author of Ernst Kantorowicz and Stefan George

Review Quotes

"[A] finely grained portrait."--Robert E. Norton, Times Literary Supplement

"[Robert Lerner] sets Kantorowicz in the context of his time, uniting heroic archival research, including numerous interviews with Kantorowicz's associates and friends, with discerning judgments to trace his remarkable odyssey. The result is a valuable contribution to modern European and American intellectual history."--Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest

"A richly illuminating study ... [and] a timely meditation on the vicissitudes of abstract, purist ideals under the pressure of savage real-world events."--George Prochnik, New York Times Book Review

"A thorough and fascinating chronicle."--Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal

"Lerner's biography is worthy of great praise, and it is very unlikely that it will ever be superseded."--Walter Laqueur, Jewish Review of Books

About the Author

Robert E. Lerner is professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University, where he taught medieval history for more than forty years.