Arlette Farge (born 14 September 1941) is a French historian who specialises in the study of the 18th century, a director of research at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

, attached to the centre for historical research at the

EHESS The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...

. Arlette is the youngest of three siblings born into a modest family which came to Charleville because of the needs of the war. After attending the Lycée Hélène Boucher in Paris, she studied to become a juge des enfants, a magistrate specialised in juvenile law, then changed her focus to take an advanced diploma (DEA) in legal and institutional history. With no post available, she left France in 1969 to do her thesis at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

where she bore witness to the activism of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

students during the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and American feminists. On her return to France, she started to prepare her doctorate in modern history on ''Le vol d'aliment à Paris au XVIII^e siècle'' (The Theft of Food in Paris in the 18th century), defended in 1974 under the supervision of

Robert Mandrou Robert Mandrou (31 January 1921 – 16 June 1984), was a French historian, one of the members of the Annales School and the secretary to its journal ''Annales d'Histoire Economique et Sociale'' ("Annals of economic and social history") . He w ...

, a pupil of

Lucien Febvre Lucien Paul Victor Febvre (, ; 22 July 1878 – 11 September 1956) was a French historian best known for the role he played in establishing the Annales School of history. He was the initial editor of the ''Encyclopédie française'' together wit ...

, and the pioneer of the history of mentalities. She then specialised in the study of the poorest communities of the capital. In 2016 she was awarded the Dan David Prize. With her research team from th
"groupe d'histoire des femmes"
(women's history group), she next worked on the themes of popular identity, gender relations and historical narrative in the 18th century. After having co-hosted the show
Les Lundis de l’histoire
' (History Mondays) on France Culture, she regularly collaborates on
La Fabrique de l’Histoire
' (The History Factory), a broadcast from the same radio station. ''The Allure of the Archives'' is a regarde
historiographical classic
and has been published in 51 editions worldwide since 1981 in seven languages. It provides a vivid and intimate insight into the lives of the poor in pre-revolutionary France, particularly women, as well as into the world of archival research.

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...

inspired her to analyse the mechanisms of power.

Bibliography

* ''Vivre dans la rue à Paris au XVIIIe'' siècle (1979) * ''Le désordre des familles: lettres de cachet des Archives de al Bastille au XVIIe siecle'' (1982) * ''Le Goût de l'archive/ The Allure of the Archives'' (1989) * ''The vanishing children of Paris: rumor and politics before the French Revolution'' (1991) * ''Dire et mal dire: l'opinion publique au XVIIIe siècle'' (1992) * ''Fragile lives: violence, power and solidarity in eighteenth century Paris'' (1993) * ''Subversive words: public opinion in eighteenth century France'' (1994) * ''Foucault against himself'' (2015) * ''Disorderly families: infamous letters from the Bastille Archives'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farge, Arlette 1941 births Living people French women historians 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians