Albert Soboul

Albert Marius Soboul (April 27, 1914 – September 11, 1982) was a French historian of the French Revolution and of Napoleon. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was Chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential works of history and historical interpretation.

Contents

Early life and education

Albert Marius Soboul was born in Ammi Moussa, Algeria, in the spring of 1914.[1] His father, a textile worker, died later that same year. He and his older sister Gisèle grew up first in a rural community in Ardèche in 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 in Nîmes.[2]

The children's aunt was a primary school teacher, and under her care Soboul blossomed in his education at the lycée of Nîmes (1924–1931). He was uniquely inspired by the educator Jean Morini-Comby, who was himself a published historian of the Revolution.[3] 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 of Montpellier, then transferred to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. After completing his agrégation in history and geography in 1938,[1] he undertook writing his first book of history, an examination of the ideas of the revolutionary leader Saint-Just.[2]

Career

Soboul published his debut book using the pseudonym "Pierre Derocles". Already involved in Communist Party activity, he formally joined the party in 1939. Called up for military service that same year, he served in the horse-drawn artillery without seeing combat before being demobilized in 1940. Soon afterward he received a teaching position at the lycée of Montpellier, but was dismissed in July 1942 after organizing a student demonstration. He spent most of the war years doing research for the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires.

After the end of the German Occupation, Soboul returned to teaching, first at Montpellier, then at the Lycée Marcelin Berthelot and finally the Lycée Henri-IV. Soboul became a close friend of the eminent historian Georges Lefebvre and wrote his 1,100-page doctoral dissertation, Les sans-culottes parisiens en l'an II (The Parisian Sans-culottes in the Year II, 1958), under his direction. Soboul was later promoted to the University of Clermont-Ferrand. In 1967, he was made Chair of the History of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne.[4]

A committed communist throughout his life, Soboul promulgated the concept of overarching class struggle as the basis of the Revolution. Together with Lefebvre and others, Soboul is considered a principal architect of the Marxist school of historical analysis.[5][6]

Published works

Soboul published numerous historical works, notably the three-volume La Civilisation de la Révolution française (The Civilization of the French Revolution).

Soboul's major works, listed by year of publication:

French publications

Posthumous publications

English editions

This list is by year of first English edition publication. Original publisher is in parentheses, followed by most current publisher and ISBN:

Legacy

Soboul faced increasing opposition to his class-struggle interpretation of the period from "revisionists" such as François Furet and Denis Richet. Since his death on 11 September 1982, Soboul's reputation has dimmed. Nonetheless, his body of work, characterized by substantial research and clear style, is considered by some to remain an important contribution to the study of "history from below."

Soboul is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery, not far from the graves of prominent Communist Party leaders and the Communards' Wall, where the last Communards were shot in May, 1871.

A biography, Un historien en son temps : Albert Soboul (1914–1982) by Claude Mazauric, was published in France in 2004.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Kelly Boyd (1999). Encyclopedia of historians and historical writing. Chicago: Taylor & Francis. p. 1,110. ISBN 978-1-884964-33-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=0121vD9STIMC&pg=PA1110. Retrieved 26 August 2011. 
  2. ^ a b c McPhee, Peter (2010). Philip Daileader; Philip Whalen. ed. French historians 1900–2000. Chichester, UK; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 589–598. ISBN 978-1-4051-9867-7. 
  3. ^ For a list of Morini-Comby's works, see Worldcat.org.
  4. ^ University of California Press (2010). "Albert Soboul: 'A Short History of the French Revolution'". Regents of the University of California. http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520034198. Retrieved 3 October 2010. 
  5. ^ Haydon, Colin; Doyle, William (1999). Robespierre. Cambridge University Press. pp. 272–274. ISBN 0-521-59116-3. 
  6. ^ McGarr, Paul (September 1998). "The French Revolution: Marxism versus revisionism". International Socialism (Socialist Workers Party (Britain)) (80). http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj80/france.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-08. 
  7. ^ Mazauric, Claude; Huard, Raymond; Naudin, Marie-Josèphe (2004) (in French). Un historien en son temps, Albert Soboul (1914 - 1982). Narrosse: d'Albret. ISBN 2913055079.