Carl Emil Schorske (March 15, 1915 – September 13, 2015), known professionally as Carl E. Schorske, was an American cultural historian and professor emeritus at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. In 1981 he won the

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...

for his book '' Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture'' (1980), which remains significant to modern European intellectual history. He was a recipient of the first year of

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

awards in 1981 and made an honorary citizen of Vienna in 2012.

Biography

Born in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to Theodore Schorske and Gertrude Goldsmith, Schorske received his B.A. from

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

in 1936 and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He served in the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

, the precursor to the CIA, during World War II, as chief of political intelligence for Western Europe. His first book, ''German Social Democracy'', published by Harvard University Press in 1955, describes the schism of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been ...

into a reformist/constitutionalist right faction and a revolutionary oppositionist left faction during the years 1905–1917. Following his war-time service, Schorske taught at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

(1946–1960), the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

(1960–1969), and

(1969 until his retirement in 1980), where he was Dayton-Stockton Professor of History. Professor Schorske was named by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine as one of the nation's ten top academic leaders. In 1987 he delivered the Charles Homer Haskins Lecture. In 1998 Schorske published ''Thinking With History: Explorations in the Passage to Modernism'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

), a collection of essays on Viennese and general history. He turned 100 in March 2015 and died in September at a retirement community in

Hightstown, New Jersey Hightstown is a borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 5,494,Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize Ludwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Ludwig (surname), including a list of people * Ludwig Ahgren Ludwig Anders Ahgren (born July 6, 1995), known mo ...

of the

Austrian Research Association Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

(''Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft''). He was a ''Corresponding Member'' of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. On 25 April 2012 Schorske was made an honorary citizen of Vienna during a ceremony attended by his wife, Elizabeth Rorke, his granddaughter, Carina del Valle Schorske, and the mayor of Vienna, Dr Michael Häupl. In 1981 he was a

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

. * 1985: City of Vienna Prize for Journalism * 1996: Grand Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria * 2007: Victor-Adler State Prize for History of Social Movements *

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian ...

Works

* ''German Social Democracy, 1905–1917: The Development of the Great Schism'' (1955,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

) * ''Thinking With History: Explorations in the Passage to Modernism'' (1998,

) * '' Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture'' (1980) * "A life of learning" Charles Homer Haskins lecture, April 23, 1987 * ''Budapest and New York: Studies in Metropolitan Transformation, 1870–1930'', with Thomas Bender (1994, Russell Sage Foundation)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schorske, Carl 1915 births 2015 deaths People from Scarsdale, New York Harvard University alumni MacArthur Fellows People of the Office of Strategic Services Princeton University faculty Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners Wesleyan University faculty Columbia College (New York) alumni American people of German descent Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Scarsdale High School alumni American centenarians Men centenarians Historians from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers