Wikipedia

Albert Soboul

Albert Marius Soboul(27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of theFrench RevolutionaryandNapoleonicperiods. A professor at theSorbonne,he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential works of history and historical interpretation. In his lifetime, he was internationally recognized as the foremost French authority on the Revolutionary era.

Albert Soboul
Born(1914-04-27)27 April 1914
Ammi Moussa,French Algeria
Died11 September 1982(1982-09-11)(aged 68)
Nîmes,France
Resting placePère Lachaise Cemetery
Alma materLa Sorbonne
SubjectFrench Revolution,Napoleonic era,Napoleon

Early life

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Soboul was born inAmmi Moussa,French Algeria,in the spring of 1914.[1]His father, a textile worker, died later that same year at the front in World War I. He and his older sister Gisèle grew up first in a rural community inArdèchein southern France before moving with their mother back to Algeria. When she too died in 1922, the children were sent to be raised by their aunt Marie inNîmes.[2][3]

Education

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The children's aunt was a primary school teacher and under her care Soboul blossomed in his education at thelycéeof Nîmes (1924–1931). He was uniquely inspired by the educator Jean Morini-Comby, who was himself a published historian of the Revolution.[4]Soboul excelled in his studies and developed a lifelong passion for history and philosophy.[2]

After Nîmes, Soboul studied for a year at the university ofMontpellier,then transferred to theLycée Louis-le-GrandinParis.He published his first work of history, an examination of the ideas of the revolutionary leaderSaint-Just,[2]originally attributed to a pseudonym, Pierre Derocles.[5][6]Soboul completed hisagrégationin history and geography in 1938.[1]

Career

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Called up for military service that same year, Soboul served in the horse-drawn artillery before being demobilized in 1940. He had already become a member of theFrench Communist Partyand remained committed to them under theGerman occupation.[3]He received a teaching position at the lycée of Montpellier, but he was dismissed by theVichy regimein 1942 for supportingResistanceactivities.[3]Soboul spent the rest of the war years doing historical research under the direction ofGeorges Henri Rivièrefor theMusée national des Arts et Traditions Populairesin Paris.[3]

After the war's end, Soboul returned again to Montpellier to teach, then moved to the Lycée Marcelin Berthelot and finally theLycée Henri-IV.He became a close friend of the eminent historianGeorges Lefebvreand under his direction wrote his 1,100-page doctoral dissertation on the revolutionarysans-culottes,The Parisian Sans-culottes in the Year II.[3]Soboul was later promoted to theUniversity of Clermont-Ferrand.[3]After a decade as a combative academic presence and prolific author, he was made Chair of the History of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne in 1967.[3][7]He served also as editor of theAnnales historiques de la Rèvolution françaiseand lectured frequently throughout the world, acquiring a reputation as "the leading French authority on the Revolution".[3]

In his writings, Soboul promulgated the concept of overarchingclass struggleas the basis of the Revolution.[3]He carried forward many of the central viewpoints of earlier historians likeFrançois Victor Alphonse AulardandAlbert Mathiez[1]and his extensive body of work is characterized by a clear, unfettered writing style and deeply detailed research.[2]He always rejected labels of his work as Marxist or communist, describing himself as "part of the 'classical' and 'scientific' school of historiography represented byTocqueville,Jaurèsand Lefebvre ".[3]Nonetheless, Soboul remains considered a principal architect of theMarxist school of historical analysis.[8][9]

Soboul propounded the Marxist interpretation arguing theReign of Terrorwas a necessary response to outside threats (in terms of other countries going to war with France) and internal threats (of traitors inside France threatening to frustrate the Revolution). In this interpretation,Maximilien Robespierreand thesans-culotteswere justified for defending the Revolution from its enemies. Soboul's position and the entire Marxist model of the French Revolution have come under intense criticism since the 1990s.François Furetand his followers have rejected Soboul and argued that foreign threats had little to do with the Terror.[10]Instead, the extreme violence was an inherent part of the intense ideological commitment of the revolutionaries—it was inevitable and necessary for them to achieve their utopian goals to kill off their opponents. Still others like Paul Hanson take a middle position, recognising the importance of the foreign enemies and viewing the Terror as a contingency that was caused by it the interaction of a series of complex events and the foreign threat. Hanson says the Terror was not inherent in the ideology of the Revolution, but that circumstances made it necessary.[11]

Soboul emphasized the importance of thesans-culottesas a social class, a sort of proto-proletariatthat played a central role. That view has been sharply attacked as well by scholars who say the sans-culottes were not a class at all. Indeed, as one historian points out, Soboul's concept of the sans-culottes has not been used by scholars in any other period of French history.[12]

Legacy

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Soboul died in Nîmes on the estate of his late aunt Marie. The French Communist Party gave him a lavish burial ceremony at thePère Lachaise Cemetery,near the graves of prominent party leaders and theCommunards' Wall,where the lastCommunardswere shot in May 1871.[13]A biography,Un historien en son temps: Albert Soboul (1914–1982)by Claude Mazauric, was published in France in 2004.[14]Toward the end of his life, Soboul's interpretations faced increasing opposition by new historians of therevisionist school,but his work is still regarded as a major contribution to the study ofhistory from below.[3]

His collection of books on the Revolution was bequeathed to theMusée de la Révolution française.

Published works

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Major publications in English

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French publications

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Soboul authored scores of books and articles in his native French. He also updated and revised numerous earlier works and often collaborated with other historians in compilations and other projects.[15]After his death, his extant writings formed the basis of several further publications:

Posthumous publications
  • 1983:Problèmes paysans de la Révolution (1789-1848),Paris, Maspero, 442 p.
  • 1984:La Révolution française,Gallimard, 2005, 121 p.
  • 1986:Portraits de révolutionnaires,Messidor, 312 p.
  • 1989:Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française,PUF, 1132 p.
  • 1990:La France napoléonienne,Arthaud, 419 p.
  • 1995:La Maison rurale française,Paris,Cths,171 p.

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcKelly Boyd (1999).Encyclopedia of historians and historical writing.Chicago: Taylor & Francis. p. 1,110.ISBN978-1-884964-33-6.Retrieved1 June2012.
  2. ^abcdMcPhee, Peter (2010). Philip Daileader; Philip Whalen (eds.).French historians 1900–2000.Chichester, UK; Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. pp.589–598.ISBN978-1-4051-9867-7.
  3. ^abcdefghijkFriguglietti, James (1988).Cannon, John(ed.).The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians.Oxford; New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd. pp.383–385.ISBN063114708X.
  4. ^For a list of Morini-Comby's works, seeWorldcat.org.
  5. ^"Author: Pierre Derocles".Worldcat.org.OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. 2012.Retrieved2 June2012.
  6. ^"Notice d'autorité personne".Catalogue.bnf.fr(in French). BnF Catalogue Général. 2012.Retrieved2 June2012.
  7. ^University of California Press (2010).Albert Soboul: 'A Short History of the French Revolution'.Regents of the University of California.Retrieved1 June2012.
  8. ^Haydon, Colin;Doyle, William(1999).Robespierre.Cambridge University Press. pp.272–274.ISBN0-521-59116-3.
  9. ^McGarr, Paul (September 1998)."The French Revolution: Marxism versus revisionism".International Socialism(80). Socialist Workers Party [Britain].Retrieved1 June2012.
  10. ^François Furet, "A Deep-rooted Ideology as Well as Circumstance", inThe French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations,ed. by Frank Kafker et al. (2002). p. 222.
  11. ^Paul R. Hanson,Contesting the French Revolution(1999)
  12. ^Paul R. Hanson (2009).Contesting the French Revolution.John Wiley. pp.95–96.ISBN9781405160834.
  13. ^Cobb, Richard(1985).People and places.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.50.ISBN0192158813.
  14. ^Mazauric, Claude; Huard, Raymond; Naudin, Marie-Josèphe (2004).Un historien en son temps, Albert Soboul (1914-1982)(in French). Narrosse: d'Albret.ISBN2913055079.
  15. ^"Author: Albert Soboul (French language)".Worldcat.org.OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. 2012.Retrieved2 June2012.
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