Nouvelle histoire
A 1970s French historiographical movement emphasizing total history.
The term nouvelle histoire, or new history, was coined in the 1970s by Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora, leaders of the third generation of the Annales school. The movement promoted an inclusive definition of historical study, often called total history, and emphasized cultural history, history of representations, and histoire des mentalités. It rejected traditional history's focus on politics, great men, narrative, administrative documents, individual motivations, and objectivity.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Historiography
- Known for
- Cultural history
- history of representations
- histoire des mentalités
- total history
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- In German historiography after 1945, the nouvelle histoire became controversial and especially influenced medieval studies.
- Most German historians considered the nouvelle histoire too positivistic and not philosophical enough.
- Marxist historians rejected the approach because it downplayed the central role of class in shaping history.
History in schools
The nouvelle histoire influenced French school teaching through journals such as Cahiers pédagogiques and Enseignement 70 in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the Institut national de recherche et de documentation pédagogique. Inspector-general Joseph Leif argued that pupils should learn about historians' approaches alongside facts and dates. Louis François, dean of the history/geography inspectorate, urged teachers to use historic documents and active methods to give students the happiness of discovery. Proponents saw it as a reaction against rote memorization, while traditionalists protested it as a postmodern threat to French patriotism and national identity.
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