Ch 05 - T5: Changing Cultural Traditions11th Themes in World History

Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897)

• Major Work: The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860).
• The Argument: He argued that a radically new 'humanist' culture flowered in Italian towns from the 14th to the 17th centuries.
• The Paradigm Shift: He believed history should focus as much on culture (literature, architecture, painting) as it does on politics and the state.
• The Individual: His core thesis was that this new culture allowed the individual to be recognized as a person in their own right, breaking away from the Middle Ages where identity was strictly tied to religious orders or guilds.

Two Approaches to History

• Leopold von Ranke (The Teacher): He established the modern empirical approach, teaching that the primary concern of a historian was strictly states and politics, relying heavily on official government papers and diplomatic archives.
• Jacob Burckhardt (The Student): He disagreed with this narrow focus. He argued that history is equally about culture (art, literature, society, and ideas) as it is about politics. This cultural approach formed the basis of his defining work on the Renaissance.

Restoring True Civilization

Humanists believed they were restoring the light of classical antiquity after centuries of intellectual stagnation. They categorized history into:

1. Antiquity: The glorious era of ancient Greece and Rome.
2. The Middle Ages (5th–14th Century): Viewed derogatorily as an era of darkness.
   • 5th–9th C: The Dark Ages
   • 9th–11th C: The Early Middle Ages
   • 11th–14th C: The Late Middle Ages
3. The Modern Age (15th Century onwards): Their own era, marked by a 'rebirth' of classical learning.