Festschrift at Williams College
honors Yale historian Peter Gay

Peter Gay, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, was recently feted at a two-day symposium held at Williams College. The symposium, titled "Enlightenment, Passion, and Modernity," was held to honor Gay and present him with a Festschrift.

Gay is internationally known as a cultural and intellectual historian of modern Europe. "Peter Gay is one of the true giants of the historical profession, whose work has ranged magisterially in grand multi-volume syntheses of the Enlightenment, as well as through many specialized studies," said Williams College President Harry C. Payne, one of the symposium's organizers. "He was my mentor in graduate school, and has continued to be my teacher simply by what he is and what he does."

Gay, who recently accepted a position as the head of a new humanities center at the New York Public Library, has written more than 20 books examining the cultural history of France and Germany. His most recent work, "My German Problems: A Memoir," describes his and his family's experience in Nazi Germany and its emotional impact.