The French Historical Revolution E-Book

Peter Burke

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 358

Beschreibung

This book provides a critical history of the movement associated with the journal Annales, from its foundation in 1929 to the present. This movement has been the single most important force in the development of what is sometimes called ‘the new history’.

Renowned cultural historian, Peter Burke, distinguishes between four main generations in the development of the Annales School. The first generation included Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, who fought against the old historical establishment and founded the journal Annales to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. The second generation was dominated by Fernand Braudel, whose magnificent work on the Mediterranean has become a modern classic. The third generation, deeply associated with the ‘cultural turn’ in historical scholarship, includes recently well-known historians such as Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Jacques Le Goff and Georges Duby. This new edition brings us right up to the present, and contemplates the work of a fourth generation, including practitioners such as Roger Chartier, Serge Gruzinski and Jacques Revel. This new generation continued much of the cultural focus of the previous Annales historians, while diversifying further, and becoming increasingly ‘reflexive’, a move that owes much to the sociocultural theories of Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau and Pierre Bourdieu.

Wide-ranging yet concise, this new edition of a classic work of analysis of one of the most important historical movements of the twentieth century will be welcomed by students of history and other social sciences and by the interested general reader.

Leseprobe

Copyright © Peter Burke 2015

The right of Peter Burke to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2015 by Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

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Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6113-1 (hardback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6114-8 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8937-1 (epub)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8936-4 (mobi)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Acknowledgements

This study owes a good deal to conversations with members of the Annales group, notably with Fernand Braudel, Roger Chartier, Jacques Le Goff, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Krzysztof Pomian, Daniel Roche, Jacques Revel and Michel Vovelle in Paris and also in more exotic locations, from the Taj Mahal to Binghamton and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

I should like to thank my wife Maria Lúcia, my publisher John Thompson, and Roger Chartier for their comments on an earlier draft of this study. I am also indebted to Juan Maiguashca (a former student of Pierre Chaunu), who fired my enthusiasm for Annales over half a century ago, and to dialogues with Alan Baker, Francisco Bethencourt, Norman Birnbaum, John Bossy, Stuart Clark, Robert Darnton, Clifford Davies, Natalie Davis, Javier Gil Pujol, Carlo Ginzburg, Ranajit Guha, the late Eric Hobsbawm, Gábor Klaniczay, Massimo Mastrogregori, Geoffrey Parker, Gwyn Prins, Ulrich Raulff, Bernd Roeck, Peter Schöttler, Carlos Martínez Shaw, the late Ivo Schöffer, Henk Wesseling and others who have, like myself, tried to combine their involvement with Annales with a measure of detachment from it.

Chronology

1911 Febvre,

Philippe II et la Franche-Comté

[Philip II and Franche-Comté]

1913 Bloch,

L'Ile de France

[The Ile de France]

1922 Febvre,

La terre et l'évolution humaine

[A Geographical Introduction to History]

1924 Bloch,

Les rois thaumaturges

[The Royal Touch]

1927 Braudel first consulted Febvre

1928 Febvre,

Un destin: Martin Luther

[Martin Luther]

1929 Foundation of

Annales d'histoire économique et sociale

1931 Bloch,

Les caractères originaux

[French Rural History]

1939 The title of the journal becomes

Annales d'histoire sociale

1939–40 Bloch,

La société féodale

[Feudal Society]

1942 Febvre,

Le problème de l'incroyance

[The Problem of Unbelief]

1942 The title of the journal becomes

Mélanges d'histoire sociale

1946 Braudel becomes co-director of the journal. Its title becomes

Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations

1947 Braudel defended his thesis

1948 Sixth Section founded

1949 Centre de Recherches Historiques founded

1949 Braudel,

La Méditerranée

[The Mediterranean]

1953 Duby,

La société dans la region maçonnaise

[Society in the Maçon Region]

1955 Chaunu,

Séville et L'Atlantique

[Seville and the Atlantic]

1956 Braudel President of the Sixth Section

1957 Le Goff,

Les intellectuels au moyen âge

[The Intellectuals in the Middle Ages]

1957 Morazé,

Les bourgeois conquérants

[Triumph of the Bourgeoisie]

1958 Febvre and Martin,

L'apparition du livre

[The Coming of the Book]

1958 Braudel, ‘Histoire et sciences sociales’ [‘History and the Social Sciences’]

1960 Goubert,

Beauvais et le Beauvaisis

[Beauvais and its Region]

1960 Ariès,

L'enfant et la vie familiale

[Centuries of Childhood]

1961 Mandrou,

Introduction à la France moderne

[Introduction to Modern France]

1963 Maison des Sciences de l'homme founded

1966 Le Roy Ladurie,

Les paysans de Languedoc

[The Peasants of Languedoc]

1967 Bennassar,

Valladolid au siècle d'or

[Valladolid in the Golden Age]

1967 Ferro,

La révolution russe

[October 1917]

1967 Le Roy Ladurie,

Histoire du climat

[Times of Feast, Times of Famine]

1968 EHESS moves to Boulevard Raspail

1968 Agulhon,

Pénitents et francs-maçons

[Penitents and Freemasons]

1968 Ferro,

La Grande Guerre

[The Great War]

1970 Agulhon,

La république au village

[The Republic in the Village]

1971 Lombard,

L'Islam dans sa première grandeur

[Islam in its First Age of Greatness]

1972 Le Goff becomes President of the VIe Section

1973 Duby,

La Dimanche de Bouvines

[The Legend of Bouvines]

1973 Vovelle,

Piété baroque et déchristianisation

[Baroque Piety and Dechristianization]

1974 Duby,

Guerriers et paysans

[Early Growth of the European Economy]

1975 The VIe section becomes the EHESS

1975 Certeau, Revel and Julia,

Politique de la langue

[The Politics of Language]

1975 Corbin,

Archaïsme et modernité en Limousin

[Archaism and Modernity in the Limoges Region]

1975 Le Roy Ladurie,

Montaillou village ocitan

[Montaillou]

1975–6 Duby and Wallon,

Histoire de la France rurale

[History of Rural France]

1976 Ferro,

Cinéma et histoire

[Cinema and History]

1976 Ozouf,

La fête révolutionnaire

[Festivals and the French Revolution]

1977 Joutard,

Légende des camisards

[The Legend of the Camisards]

1977 Valensi,

Fellahs tunisiens

[Tunisian Peasants]

1978 Duby,

Les trois ordres

[The Three Orders]

1978 Furet,

Penser la revolution française

[Interpreting the French Revolution]

1978 Herlihy and Klapisch,

Les Toscans

[Tuscans and their Families]

1978 Nicolas,

La Savoie au 18e siècle

[Savoy in the 18th Century]

1979 Agulhon,

Marianne au combat

[Marianne into Battle]

1979 Schmitt,

Le saint lévrier

[The Holy Greyhound]

1979 Le Roy Ladurie,

Carnaval de Romans

[Carnival]

1980–5 Duby,

Histoire de la France urbaine

[History of Urban France]

1980 Hartog,

Le miroir d'Hérodote

[Mirror of Herodotus]

1981 Croix,

La Bretagne

[Brittany]

1981 Le Goff,

La naissance du purgatoire

[The Birth of Purgatory]

1982 Corbin,

Le miasme et la jonquille

[The Foul and the Fragrant]

1983 Flandrin,

Un temps pour embrasser

[A Time for Kissing]

1983 Vovelle,

La mort et l'occident

[Death and the West]

1984 Lepetit,

Chemins de terre et voies d'eau

[Communications by Land and Water]

1984–92 Nora,

Lieux de Mémoire

[Realms of Memory]

1985–7 Ariès and Duby,

Histoire de la vie privée

[History of Private Life]

1985 Jouhaud,

Mazarinades

[Pamphlets against Mazarin]

1985 Vigarello,

Le propre et la sale

[Concepts of Cleanliness]

1988 Boureau,

La papesse Jeanne

[Pope Joan]

1988 Chartier,

Cultural History

1988 Corbin,

Le territoire du vide

[The Lure of the Sea]

1988 Gruzinski,

La colonisation de l'imaginaire

[The Conquest of Mexico]

1988 Lepetit,

Les villes dans la France moderne

[Towns in Early Modern France]

1988 Noiriel,

Le creuset français

[The French Melting-Pot]

1989 Bennassar,

Chrétiens d'Allah

[Renegades]

1989 Chartier, ‘Le monde comme représentation’ [‘The World as Representation’]

1990 Chartier,

Origines culturelles de la revolution française

[The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution]

1990 Corbin,

Le village des cannibales

[Village of Cannibals]

1990 Gruzinski,

La guerre des images

[Images at War]

1990 Lombard,

Le carrefour javanais

[Java at the Cross-roads]

1990 Schmitt,

La raison des gestes

[Gestures]

1991–2 Duby and Perrot,

Histoire des femmes

[History of Women]

1992 Chartier,

L'ordre des livres

[The Order of Books]

1992 Valensi,

Fables de la mémoire

[Fables of Memory]

1994 Title of journal changed to

Annales: histoire, sciences sociales

1994 Corbin,

Les cloches de la terre

[Village Bells]

1995 Boureau,

Droit de cuissage

[The Lord's First Night]

1995 Lepetit,

Les Formes de l'expérience

[The Forms of Experience]

1996 Le Goff,

St Louis

[St Louis]

1996 Revel et al.,

Jeux d'échelles

[Problems of Scale]

1997 Le Roy Ladurie,

Saint-Simon

[St-Simon]

1998 Chartier,

Au bord de la falaise

[On the Edge of the Cliff]

1999 Gruzinski,

La pensée métisse

[The Mestizo Mind]

2000 Jouhaud,

Les pouvoirs de la literature

[The Powers of Literature]

2002 Ferro,

Choc d'Islam

[The Shock of Islam]

2002 Flandrin,

L'ordre des mets

[The Order of Dishes]

2002 Schmitt,

Le corps des images

[The Body of Images]

2003 Hartog,

Régimes d'historicité

[Regimes of Historicity]

2004 Gruzinski,

Les quatre parties du monde

[The Four Continents]

2005 Chartier,

Inscrire et effacer

[Inscription and Erasure]

2005–6 Corbin (ed.)

Histoire du corps

[History of the Body]

2005 Lilti,

Le monde des salons

[The World of the Salons]

2006 Noiriel,

Introduction à la socio-histoire

[Introduction to Socio-History]

2007 Ruggiu,

L'individu et la famille

[The Individual and the Family]

2011 EHESS moves to Avenue de France

2012 Valensi,

Ces étrangers familiers

[Familiar Foreigners]

2013 Corbin,

La douceur de l'ombre

[The Delight of the Shade]

Abbreviations

AESCAnnales: économies, sociétés, civilisationsAHSSAnnales: histoire, sciences socialesARSSActes de la Recherche en Sciences SocialesP&PPast and PresentRSRevue de SynthèseRSHRevue de Synthèse Historique

Preface to the Second Edition

This book was originally published in 1990, as part of a series of slim volumes entitled Key Contemporary Thinkers, although it presented a portrait of a group rather than an individual. The new edition of The French Historical Revolution appears nearly a quarter of a century after the first. Much has happened in that time, in the history of the ‘Annales School’ as in history in general. The journal changed its title once more in 1994, and is now known as Annales: histoire, sciences sociales. Important new studies have been published by members of the group.

Studies of the group, or of individual members, have multiplied at such a rate that it is becoming difficult to keep up with them all. Massimo Mastrogregori's careful analysis of the manuscripts has allowed a more faithful version of his Historian's Craft to be published (though this version is not available in English).1 Archives that were once closed, including those of Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel, have become accessible, and many of their letters, together with Marc Bloch's, have now been published.2 A few of Braudel's lectures to fellow prisoners have been published, and so have his widow's illuminating articles about the intellectual origins of her husband and his Mediterranean.3 A number of Annalistes have produced memoirs or given interviews about their intellectual lives.4

As a result, a new version of this book is both necessary and possible. I am grateful to John Thompson and to Polity for the opportunity to revise and enlarge this study, liberating it from the series to which it originally belonged, in order to take advantage of both the accumulation of information about the group and the changes in perspective that follow increasing distance from the foundation year of the journal in 1929. In the process of revision, dialogues with Jaume (‘Santi’) Aurell and references provided by my Emmanuel colleagues Philip Howell and David Maxwell proved invaluable.

Notes

1

    Mastrogregori, ‘Manuscrit interrompu’.

2

    Müller,

Marc Bloch-Lucien Febvre

; Pluet and Candar,

Lucien Febvre

; Pluet-Despatin,

Écrire

.

3

    Braudel,

Ambitions

, 11–83; P. Braudel, ‘Origines’; ‘La genèse’.

4

    Corbin,

Un historien du sensible

; Duby,

L'histoire continue

; Ferro,

Autobiographie

; Goubert,

Parcours

; Le Goff,

Une vie pour l'histoire

; Morazé,

Un historien engagé

; Nora,

Egohistoires

.

Introduction

A remarkable amount of the most innovative, the most memorable and the most significant historical writing of the twentieth century was produced in France. La nouvelle histoire, as it is sometimes called, is at least as famous, as French, and as controversial as la nouvelle cuisine.1 A good deal of this new history is the work of a particular group associated with the journal founded in 1929 under the title Annales d'histoire économique et sociale; following four changes of title, it is now known as Annales: histoire, sciences sociales. Outsiders generally call this group the ‘Annales School’, emphasizing what members have in common.

Insiders, on the other hand often, though not always, deny the existence of such a school, emphasizing individual approaches within the group.2 During a discussion at the International Congress of Historical Sciences held at Stuttgart in 1985, I remember hearing a leading member of the group, Marc Ferro, vigorously denying the existence of a school. While so doing, he regularly employed the term ‘nous’. If the word ‘school’ (like the Annales ‘paradigm’ or ‘spirit’) gives the misleading impression of an orthodoxy, a better term might be the one proposed by two more insiders, Roger Chartier and Jacques Revel: ‘nebula’ (nébuleuse).3 Alternatively, it may be useful to speak of an Annales ‘network’, a ‘movement’ or even an extended ‘family’.