German-American historian at Yale and Columbia — born Peter Fröhlich in Berlin, fled Nazism — who wrote the definitive two-volume history of the Enlightenment (The Enlightenment: An Interpretation) and major biographies of Freud and the bourgeoisie.
Provided the most comprehensive and sympathetic account of the Enlightenment as a coherent intellectual movement — arguing it was unified by commitment to reason, nature, and humanity — and the most detailed psychobiography of Freud, revealing the personal stakes in his intellectual system.
Discussing
Ask anything about Peter Gay — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.
Sign in to start a conversation.