Karl Lamprecht was the most controversial historian in Imperial Germany. His great project, the attempt to fashion on all-embracing, scientific 'cultural history' of the German nation, challenged the governing tenets of German historiography at the close of the nineteenth century and produced the most bitter dispute the German historical profession has ever witnessed. Lamprecht's defeat in this controversy resulted in his professional ostracism; and it reinforced both the commitment to political history and the antagonism to social science which remained hallmarks of the German historical profession until late in the twentieth century. This is the first biography of the historian ever published, as well s the richest account to date of the great methodological controversy he unleashed. The analysis weaves broad intellectual and institutional forces together with influences that took shape during the historian's early life. The biography is based on Lamprecht's personal papers, as well as on archival sources in both east and west Germany. It will appeal to all students of German history.