2024 Annual Feldman Lecture
Paul Lerner is a Historian of Modern Germany and Central Europe with particular interest in the history of the human sciences, Jewish history, gender, and the history and theory of consumer culture. He has written on the history of psychiatry, specifically on hysteria and trauma in political, cultural and economic context in the years around World War I in Germany, and he recently published a book on the reception and representation of department stores and modern forms of marketing and consumption in Germany and Central Europe. Entitled “The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880-1949,” the book appeared with Cornell University Press in Spring 2015. It pays particular attention to the notion of the “Jewish department store” and the ways that various movements deployed images of Jews to critique excessive consumption or mass consumer society. Lerner is also part of a long-term project and working group on German Jewish popular culture and has co-edited a volume of essays entitled: “Jewish Masculinities: German Jews, Gender and History.” He is currently working on several projects concerning German-speaking émigrés from Nazi-controlled Europe, including a study of Austrian Jews and their impact on American consumer culture in the 1950s and beyond.
Moderator: Jeroen Dewulf, Director, Institute of European Studies
If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Ray Savord at rsavord@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-4555 with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days before the event.
Wednesday, November 13 @ 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life2121 Allston way, Berkeley, CA
RSVP Here.Co-sponsors: Institute of European Studies; German Historical Institute; Center for German and European Studies; Austrian Studies Program, Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies