Work · Science & Human Sciences
Reflections on History
Lectures of 1868–73, published after his death by his nephew Jacob Oeri: history is studied as the interplay of three powers – state, religion and culture – and of historical crises, without claiming to know a plan of world history.
Introduction
The “Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen” are lectures “on the study of history” that Burckhardt gave in Basel between 1868 and 1873; his nephew Jacob Oeri edited them and published them in 1905. Burckhardt rejects any philosophy of history that claims to know the plan of world history and studies instead the relations between three “powers” – the state, religion and culture – the historical crises in which they shift, and the role of “greatness” in history. The lectures express a deep scepticism towards power and modern mass society. Read widely in the twentieth century, especially after 1945, they became a classic of historical reflection.
More works by Jacob Burckhardt
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