Product Description: This collection by the distinguished Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) reflects the theme of its key essay, The Task of Cultural History," throughout its pages. Huizinga's conception of cultural history informs both his essays on historiographic questions and those on such figures as John of Salisbury, Abelard, Joan of Arc, Erasmus, and Grotius...read more

Product Description: Johan Huizinga had a special sympathy for the complex, withdrawn personality of Erasmus and for his advocacy of intellectual and spiritual balance in a quarrelsome age. This biography is a classic work on the sixteenth-century scholar/humanist...read more

In Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga defines play as the central activity in flourishing societies. He identifies five characteristics of play: it is free; it is not “ordinary” or “real” life; it is distinct from “ordinary” life both as to locality and duration; it creates order; it is connected with no material interest, and from it no profit can be gained. With cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics, Huizinga examines play in all its diverse guises―as it relates to language, law, war, knowledge, poetry, myth, philosophy, art, and much more. As he writes, “Civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a baby detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.” Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of “man the player” through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and early modern world. With an eye for our own times he writes: “In American politics [play] is even more evident. Long before the two-party system had reduced itself to two gigantic teams whose political differences were hardly discernible to an outsider, electioneering in America had developed into a kind of national sport.” With its remarkable historical sweep, Homo Ludens defines play for generations to come. “A fascinating account of ‘man the player’ and the contribution of play to civilization.”―Harper’s “A writer with a sharp and powerful intelligence, helped by a gift of expression and exposition which is very rare, Huizinga assembles and interprets one of the most fundamental elements of human culture: the instinct for play. Reading this volume, one suddenly discovers how profoundly the achievements in law, science, poverty, war, philosophy, and in the arts, are nourished by the instinct of play.”―Roger Caillois, editor of Diogenes

Product Description: This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

Product Description: El otoño de la Edad Media, subtitulado Estudios sobre la forma de la vida y del espíritu durante los siglos XIV y XV en Francia y los Países Bajos es una obra historiográfica del historiador neerlandés Johan Huizinga, publicada en 1919...read more

Product Description: El autor aborda problemas decisivos en la historia occidental de la cultura. Su poderoso sentido de la síntesis, el vasto arsenal enciclopédico que pone en movimiento para analizar todas las cuestiones y su lúcida inteligencia hacen de éste uno de sus libros más brillantes.

Product Description: Como pone de manifiesto El otono de la Edad Media, Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) llevo a la perfeccion la tarea de reconstruir las formas de vida y las pautas culturales del pasado. Con Homo ludens, el gran historiador holandes se propuso mostrar la insuficiencia de las imagenes convencionales del «homo sapiens» y el «homo faber»...read more

Product Description: A study of the forms of life, thought and art in France and the Netherlands in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Product Description: This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience...read more

Surveys the history of France and the Netherlands at the close of the Middle Ages, discussing the major factors dominating the social and cultural scene