Emily J. Levine is assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Born in New York City, she lives in Durham, North Carolina.
"During the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century,
a small coterie of intellectual and cultural figures succeeded into
transforming Hamburg, however briefly, into one of the cultural
capitals of Europe. Levine's Dreamland of Humanists is an
intellectual history of this important, and underappreciated, place
and time. . . . Levine has contributed a major volume to the
project of reestablishing the intellectual significance of Warburg,
Cassirer, and Panofsky for twentieth century humanist thought, and
the cultural transformation of the city that sustained them."--
"MAKE Literary Magazine"
"Dreamland of Humanists is more than a detailed chronicle of a
unique research institute in exile. Levine's main focus is the
cultural life of Hamburg during the Weimar Republic and its effects
on the three scholars who were involved in creating the Warburg
Institute. If anything, her book is reminiscent of Allan Janik and
Stephen Toulmin's Wittgenstein's Vienna in capturing the spirit of
a particular city and a remarkable group of intellectuals. . . .
Clearly written, copiously detailed and a fine example of
intellectual and cultural history."-- "European Legacy"
"From its inception in the early 1900s to its relocation to London
in 1933, the Warburg Library in Hamburg was a symbol of holistic
cultural study and humanistic learning, while the men most closely
associated with the Library--Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky, and Ernst
Cassirer--were vital to the symbolic turn that marked so much of
twentieth-century thought. Emily Levine skillfully weaves together
three men, a library, and a city in this compelling study of a
crucial moment in modern intellectual history. She significantly
enhances our understanding of the ideas and the shared urban and
institutional context of these pivotal thinkers, while recasting
Weimar culture in light of a shifting focus from the capital to
Germany's 'second' city."
--Warren Breckman, author of Adventures of the Symbolic:
Postmarxism and Radical Democracy
"If there is any example of an intellectual history with its feet
on the ground, then it would be Levine's thoroughly researched and
beautifully told story of the Warburg library. More than a book
about a place, an institution, and a handful of intellectuals,
Dreamland of Humanists is an unparalleled geography of twentieth
century intellectual life, and a key to its countless codes and
mysteries."-- "German History"
"Levine gets it right. Her accounts are characterized by an
impressive intellectual reach and stupendous scholarship. . . .
Levine offers more than a contribution to the cultural and
intellectual history of twentieth-century Germany, the Weimar
period, or the development of the disciplines of art history,
cultural history, and philosophy. Dreamland of Humanists is an
examination into the principal conditions under which great ideas
can thrive--anywhere in the world."-- "German Studies Review"
"Levine's book succeeds very well, too, in carrying out another
mission, and that is to understand exactly what difference the
'Jewishness' of the three protagonists made in their lives and
ideas. . . . Never pushing the case too hard, Levine shows that all
these figures lived and worked keenly aware of the cultural
prejudices around them, trying, in various ways, to transcend them.
Levine deserves much credit for having given us new insight into
these figures by setting them firmly into the loamy soil of
Hamburg. . . . This is a fine book, and I hope it will provoke the
writing of more studies of liberal intellectuals and their
hometowns."--Suzanne Marchand "Journal of Modern History"
"Dreamland of Humanists is a deeply researched, well-structured,
and elegantly written work of history that brings to life the city
of Hamburg, a place that, thanks to its unique Hanseatic economic
and political traditions, served as a welcome home for the Warburg
Library and the three German Jewish intellectuals most closely
associated with its name. Levine should be commended."--Peter E.
Gordon "author of Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer,
Davos"
"Insightful, interesting, and sophisticated, Dreamland of Humanists
not only contributes to our individual and collective knowledge of
the Warburg school but it sheds new light on the intellectual and
political struggles and ultimately tragic fate of Weimar culture as
a whole. I would go so far as to state that this is a work that I
have been waiting for."--Steven E. Aschheim, author of Beyond the
Border: The German-Jewish Legacy Abroad
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