Georges Lefebvre
Georges Lefèbvre (born August 6, 1874 in Lille , † August 28, 1959 in Paris ) was a French historian , who in his time was considered a leading authority on the field of the French Revolution , with a considerable reputation as a scholar, the most respected journal on the subject, the Annales historiques de la Révolution française , and held the position of professor for the history of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne .
life and work
He was a socialist throughout his life, and around the time of World War II he was increasingly influenced by Marxism . He often wrote from the perspective he felt a peasant of the time would have taken, as in his groundbreaking work Les Paysans du Nord pendant la Révolution française (1924). Lefebvre was influenced by the Marxist idea that history should be interested in economic structures and class relations.
Lefebvre's account of the origins of the French Revolution was written down in Quatre-Vingt-Neuf (seventeen eighty-nine ) and published in 1939 to mark the commemoration of the events of the "Great Fear" (French: 'Grande Peur') of 1789. The Vichy government that took office the following year, however, did not want a history from the left wing or an understanding sympathetic to the revolution, as it was supported by the anti-republican right. The regime banned the book and ordered 8,000 copies to be burned. As a result, the work was virtually unknown in its home country until it was reprinted in 1970.
Quatre-Vingt-Neuf was published in 1947 in English translation ( The Coming of the French Revolution ) and cemented its reputation in the Anglophone world as an understandably written, yet subtle classic. What remains is the definitive explanation of the Marxist interpretation of the reasons for the revolution.
His main work, La Révolution Française , appeared in two volumes in 1951 and 1957. After the death of Albert Mathiez (1874–1932), it was the next decisive French Revolution by a French historian on the political left. He also wrote a study on Napoléon Bonaparte - Napoléon (1935/1955).
He was a corresponding member of the British Academy since 1949 and of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR since 1955 .
Fonts (selection)
- Les Paysans du Nord pendant la Révolution française. Marquant, Lille 1924, (Thèse doctorat d'État, Paris, 1924).
- La Grande Peur de 1789. Colin, Paris 1932.
- Napoléon (= Peuples et civilizations. Histoire générale. 14, ZDB -ID 991172-8 ). Alcan, Paris 1935 (German: Grimm Verlag for Art and Science, Baden-Baden 1955).
- Quatre-Vingt-Neuf. Maison du Livre Français, Paris 1939, (Ed. Sociales, Paris 1970; German: 1789. The year of the revolution (= dtv. 4491). Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-423-04491-8 ).
- Études sur la Révolution française. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1954.
literature
- James Friguglietti: Bibliography de Georges Lefebvre. Société des études robespierristes, Paris 1972.
Web links
- Literature by and about Georges Lefèbvre in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lefebvre, Georges |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 6, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lille |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 28, 1959 |
| Place of death | Paris |