French Historians 1900-2000: New Historical Writing in Twentieth-Century France

Abstract

Although not titles as such, his is a dictionary of French Historians is a collection of 42 essays on individual French historians, ranging alphabetically from Maurice Agulhon to Michel Vovelle and chronologically from Henri Pirenne (1862-1935) to Henry Rousso (b 1954), and including 14 still living at the time of publication. The essays present, contextualise and evaluate the contribution made by each historian to scholarship. Each essay also includes a selected bibliography of works by and about the historian in question. The combination of biographical information, description and critical comment, insight and analysis is well-balanced and the quality of the contributions is high. The essays are long enough to allow a solid and full presentation with plenty of room for nuance and the discussion of individual texts. One can always dispute the individual choices, wondering why some were included and not others, although on balance the range is fine, with the probable exception of there being only two women – Mona Ozouf and Michelle Perrot – included (where are Madeleine Reberioux, Annette Wieviorka?). The real shame is that the publishers have decided to price out individual scholars from the start, and at this rate even quite a few university libraries will find it a bit of a pinch, in spite of the quality of the work.