Peter Gay

Peter Gay (1923–2015) was a German-born American historian and cultural critic. Born in Berlin, he fled Nazi Germany and later became a leading scholar of European intellectual history. Gay taught for many years at Yale University and wrote widely on the Enlightenment, modern culture, and the history of ideas. His major works include *The Enlightenment: An Interpretation*, a landmark study of eighteenth-century thought and its legacy, and *Freud: A Life for Our Time*, an influential biography that helped shape modern understanding of Sigmund Freud. He also explored the relationship between culture, politics, and psychology in numerous essays and books.