Appel de Blois is an initiative in 2008 by
Liberté pour l’Histoire to work against
legislative authorities criminalizing the past through the legislative, thus putting more and more obstacles in the way of historical research. It was signed by historians such as
Carlo Ginzburg
Carlo Ginzburg (; born April 15, 1939) is an Italian historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: ''The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an Ital ...
,
Eric Hobsbawn
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...
, and
Jacques Le Goff
Jacques Le Goff (1 January 1924 – 1 April 2014) was a French historian and prolific author specializing in the Middle Ages, particularly the 12th and 13th centuries.
Le Goff championed the Annales School movement, which emphasizes long-term t ...
. The appeal, which was directed at the European public, particularly scholars, historians, and academics, called for the rejection of "moralisation" and "judicialisation" of history through the codification of the so-called
memory laws
A memory law ( in German, in French) is a legal provision governing the interpretation of historical events and showcases the legislator's or judicial preference for a certain narrative about the past. In the process, competing interpretation ...
.
The initiative asks people to sign up under this:
References
External links
Appel de Blois (english version)The freedom of historical debate is under attack by the memory police
ttp://www.dagbladet.no/tekstarkiv/artikkel.php?id=5001080083853&tag=item&words=Timothy%3BGarton%3BAsh norwegian translationin Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...
) in The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
by professor Timothy Garton Ash
Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSA (born 12 July 1955) is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Most of his work has been concerned with the contemporary history of Europe, with a speci ...
Point de vue Appel de Blois
in Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
History organizations based in France
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