Norman Cohn (historian)

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Norman Rufus Colin Cohn (born January 12, 1915 in London , England , † July 31, 2007 , Cambridge , England) was a British historian and writer, most recently he was a professor at the University of Sussex .

Life

Born in London to a Jewish Catholic family, Cohn was educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and Christ Church College , Oxford . He was a student and research student at Christ Church from 1933 to 1939, then from 1939 he served in the British Army for six years . After the war he taught at various universities in England, Scotland, Ireland, the United States of America and Canada. He is the father of music journalist Nik Cohn .

In 1966 he was made a Professorial Fellow at the University of Sussex and became director of an international research project on the preconditions for persecution and genocide . From 1973 to 1980 Cohn was an "Astor-Wolfson Professor" in Sussex.

His work was recognized by his election as a Fellow of the British Academy .

In his most famous work, which is in German under the title The new earthly paradise. Revolutionary millenarianism and mystical anarchism appeared in medieval Europe , it is particularly dedicated to the social conditions in which medieval mass movements developed: the representation of central and western European millenarianism , and refers to the anchoring of end-time beliefs in the Christian and Jewish tradition. Again and again in the Middle Ages and during the Reformation, prophets and messianic figures appeared who heralded the dawn of the millennium, the millennial kingdom of Christ. They were particularly popular with the poor, uprooted and disappointed in the Church, who had nothing to lose and who hoped for everything from earthly paradise.

Works

Books by Norman Cohn

  • The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages engl. 1957. Frequent new editions, also with other titles and in different versions. First German transl. Eduard Thorsch The struggle for the millennial kingdom Francke, Bern 1961. Also Neufass. udT: The new earthly paradise. Revolutionary millenarianism and mystical anarchism in medieval Europe Rowohlt, Hamburg 1986 & 1988 ISBN 3-499-55472-0 . Most recently apocalyptic and prophet in the Middle Ages Hohe, Erftstadt 2007 ISBN 3867560323 . Also in Spanish and a. language
  • Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" New York 1966. The published shortly after the First World War in Berlin, compiled from several fictional texts anti-Semitic pamphlet Protocols of the Elders of Zion aroused tremendous sensation and gained rapid dissemination. Its content is: there is a detailed plan for the establishment of Jewish world domination. Leading representatives of Judaism had decided on it at a secret congress, and it was only thanks to fortunate circumstances that it could be revealed to endangered humanity, at least so the editors claimed. The work was exposed as a forgery, but it did not fail to have an impact on political developments in Germany. German udT: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The myth of the Jewish world conspiracy Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1969; New edition Elster, Baden-Baden 1998 ISBN 3891512619 and as a blind print 2001
  • Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom first 1975. (revised edition 2000) Last edition 2005 ISBN 0712657576
  • Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith dt. The expectation of the end times. From the origin of the Apocalypse Translated by Peter Gillhofer & Hans-Ulrich Möhring. Insel, Frankfurt 1997 ISBN 345816880X
  • Noah's Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought 1996

Essays

  • The Horns of Moses Commentary vol. 3 (September 1958)
  • The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy: A Case Study in Collective Psychopathology Commentary vol. 41 no.6 (June 1966) 35
  • Monsters of Chaos Horizon: Magazine of the Arts no.4 (1972) 42
  • Permanence de Millénarismes Le Contrat Social: revue historique et critique des faits et des idées vol. 6 no.5 (September 1962) 289
  • Adamo: the Distinguished Savage The Twentieth Century vol. 155 (January 1954) 263
  • The Saint-Simonian Extravaganza The Twentieth Century vol. 154 (July 1953) 354
  • The Magus of the North The Twentieth Century vol. 153 (January 1953) 283
  • The Saint-Simonian Portent The Twentieth Century vol. 152 (July 1952)
  • How Time Acquired a Consummation Apocalypse Theory and the End of the World (1995) 21-37 (compilation)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Greil Marcus : Lipstick Traces . Rogner & Bernhard bei Zweiausendeins, Hamburg, 1992: p. 98. ISBN 3807702547

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cohn, Norman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohn, Norman Rufus Colin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 2007
Place of death Cambridge , England