Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider, Gay Peter

First published in 1968, Weimar Culture is one of the masterworks of Peter Gays distinguished career. A study of German culture between the two wars, the book brilliantly traces the rise of the artistic, literary, and musical culture that bloomed ever so briefly in the 1920s amid the chaos of Germanys tenuous post-World War I democracy, and crashed violently in the wake of Hitlers rise to power. Despite the ephemeral nature of the Weimar democracy, the influence of its culture was profound and far-reaching, ushering in a modern sensibility in the arts that dominated Western culture for most of the twentieth century. Vivid and eminently readable, Weimar Culture is the finest introduction for the casual reader and historian alike.