University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, Department of History History, Department of 9-21-2001 Generational Conflict in the Late Reformation: The Basel Paroxysm Amy Nelson Burnett University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub Part of the History Commons Burnett, Amy Nelson, "Generational Conflict in the Late Reformation: The Basel Paroxysm" (2001). Faculty Publications, Department of History. 8. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Department of History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xxxii:2 (Autumn, 2001), 217–242. GENERATIONAL CONFLICT IN THE REFORMATION Amy Nelson Burnett Generational Conºict in the Late Reformation: The Basel Paroxysm Since the tumultuous 1960s, social scientists have been fascinated by the theme of generational conºict. Building on the theoretical structure ªrst proposed by Mannheim in the 1920s, developmental and social psychologists and sociologists have examined a wide range of questions related to generational change, youth movements, and life-cycle course. Historians, too, have applied Mannheim’s insights to the past, fol- lowing the example of Mannheim himself, who explained the nineteenth-century struggle between conservative and liberal val- ues in Germany in terms of generational identity.1 The application of generational theory to history is not with- out its critics, but even those who have expressed reservations about the methodology still acknowledge that Mannheim’s con- cept of social generations provides a useful analytical tool for un- derstanding historical change.