Robert Mandrou

Robert Mandrou (born January 31, 1921 , † March 25, 1984 ) was a French historian of the 17th and 18th centuries. He is counted to the Annales school and dealt with cultural history ( Histoire des mentalités ).

Mandrou came from a humble background, his mother was a seamstress, his father a railroad worker. During the Second World War he was obliged to do voluntary labor in Germany and among other things worked as a forest worker in the Harz Mountains. Nevertheless, he retained an inclination towards Germany and was well acquainted with German historical literature.

He was a student of Lucien Febvre and received his agrégation in history in 1950 and was secretary of the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale from 1954 to 1962 . After a dispute with Fernand Braudel over the intellectual legacy of Lucien Febvre, he gave up his post. In 1957 he became Directeur d´études at the École pratique des hautes études and in 1968 he was professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre . In the same year his Thèse de Doctorat (corresponding to a today's habilitation) appeared on the official relationship to witchcraft in France in the 17th century. In 1977 he founded the French historical mission ( Mission Historique Française en Allemagne ) at the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen and, in a work on the Fugger , undertook the first attempt at the French Annales School, a topic of German history in early modern times with its Methods to handle. For health reasons he had to retire early in 1980.

His story of French civilization became known with Georges Duby (1958). With Philippe Ariès , with whom he was friends, he edited the series Civilizations et mentalités at Plon.

He was interested in Central European history and sympathized with the Prague uprising in 1968, about which he published a book. In 1984 he also wrote a foreword for Josef Macek's French translation of the history of Bohemia .

Arlette Farge is one of his PhD students .

Fonts

• with Georges Duby Histoire de la civilization française , 2 volumes, Paris, Armand Colin, 1958, 1964 (English translation: A History of French Civilization, Random House, 1964)
• Introduction à la France modern. Essai de psychologie historique , Paris, Éditions Albin Michel, 1961, 1974, 1998 (English translation: Introduction to Modern France 1500-1640, Edward Arnold 1975)
• De la culture populaire en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle , Paris, Éditions Stock, 1964.
• Classes et luttes de classes dans la France du XVIIe siècle , Florence, d'Anna, 1965.
• La France des XVIe et XVIIe siècle , Paris, PUF, Coll. Nouvelle Clio, 1967, 1987, 1996
• Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe siècle , Paris, Plon, 1968 (dissertation)
• Les Fugger, propriétaires fonciers en Souabe (fin du XVIe siècle) , Paris, Plon, 1969.
  • German edition: The Fuggers as landowners in Swabia, 1560-1618 , publications by the Max Planck Institute for History, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, 2nd edition 1998
• Les Sept jours de Prague, 21-27 août 1968. Première documentation historique complète de l'entrée des troupes aux accords de Moscou , Paris, 1969.
• Article Histoire and Histoire des Mentalités in Encyclopaedia Universalis , Volume 8, 1970
• Louis XIV en son temps , Paris, PUF, 1973.
• Des humanistes aux hommes de science , Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1973.
• L'Europe absolutiste. Raison et raison d'État (1649–1775) , Paris, Fayard, 1977, 1995 (received the Gobert Grand Prix in 1978 )
  • German edition: Staatsräson und Vernunft (1649-1775) , Propylaen history of Europe, Propylaen Verlag 1990
• Possession et sorcellerie en France au XVIIe siècle , Paris, 1979.

literature

• Dominique Biloghi: Mandrou, Robert. In: Christian Amalvi: Dictionnaire biographique des historiens français et francophones , Boutique de l'Histoire, 2004.
• Etienne François : Robert Mandrou January 31, 1921 to March 25, 1984. In: Historische Zeitschrift Volume 239 (1984), pp. 496-498.
• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie : Robert Mandrou. In: Annales 1985, pp. 41-43 online .