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Enzo Traverso (born 14 October 1957) is an Italian scholar of European
intellectual history Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...
. He is the author of several books on critical theory, the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
,
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, memory,
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
,
revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
, and contemporary
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians h ...
. His books have been translated into numerous languages. After living and working in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
for over 25 years, he is currently the Susan and Barton Winokur Professor in the Humanities 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 tea ...
.


Education

Enzo Traverso obtained a master's degree (Laurea) in modern history at the
University of Genoa The University of Genoa, known also with the acronym UniGe ( it, Università di Genova), is one of the largest universities in Italy. It is located in the city of Genoa and regional Metropolitan City of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Ligur ...
(Italy) in 1982. After moving to Paris in 1985 to further pursue his academic trajectory he completed his PhD program at
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences 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. Th ...
(EHESS) in 1989, under the direction of
Michael Löwy Michael Löwy (born 6 May 1938) is a French-Brazilian Marxist sociologist and philosopher. He is emeritus research director in social sciences at the CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research) and lectures at the ''École des hautes ...
. In 2009 he achieved the academic qualification of habilitation (accreditation to supervise research).


Career

From 1989 through 1991, he worked for the International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) based in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, and after that in the Library of contemporary international documentation (BDIC) in Nanterre. He also held the position of a lecturer in the Departement of Political science at the University of Paris VIII (1993–1995) and at
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences 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. Th ...
(EHESS) (1994–1997). In 1995 he was hired by the University of Picardie Jules Verne in
Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
as an assistant professor. He was later promoted to full professor, a post he held from 2009 to 2013, when he joined the faculty at Cornell. In 2014, he was awarded the and in 2016, the Huésped de Honor Extraordinario,
Universidad Nacional de La Plata The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 9 ...
, in recognition of his historical scholarship.


Works


Original works

* ''Revolution: An Intellectual History'', Verso, 2021, . * ''Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory (New Directions in Critical Theory)'', Columbia University Press; 2nd Revised ed., 2017, . *''Les Marxistes et la question juive'', La Brèche-PEC, Montreuil, 1990. * ''Les Juifs et l'Allemagne, de la symbiose judéo-allemande à la mémoire d'Auschwitz'', La Découverte, Paris, 1992. * ''Siegfried Kracauer. Itinéraire d’un intellectuel nomade'', La Découverte, Paris, 1994. * ''L'Histoire déchirée, essai sur Auschwitz et les intellectuels'', Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1997. * ''Pour une critique de la barbarie moderne : écrits sur l'histoire des Juifs et l'antisémitisme'', Éditions Page deux (Cahiers libres), Lausanne, 2000. * ''Le Totalitarisme : Le XXe siècle en débat'', 2001. * ''La Violence nazie : Essai de généalogie historique'', 2002, La Fabrique, Paris. * ''La Pensée dispersée : Figures de l'exil judéo-allemand'', 2004. * ''Le Passé, mode d'emploi : Histoire, mémoire, politique'', 2005, La Fabrique, Paris. * ''À Feu et à sang : De la guerre civile européenne, 1914-1945'', Stock, Paris, 2007. * ''L'histoire comme champ de bataille : Interpréter les violences du XXe siècle'', La Découverte, Paris, 2011. * ''La fin de la modernité juive : Histoire d'un tournant conservateur'', La Découverte, Paris, 2013. * ''Mélancolie de gauche : La force d’une tradition cachée (XIXe-XXIe siècle)'', La Découverte, Paris, 2016. * ''Les nouveaux visages du fascisme'', Textuel, 2017


English translations

*''The Jewish Question: History of a Marxist Debate'', Brill, Leiden, 2018 *''The End of Jewish Modernity'', Pluto Press, London, 2016, translated by David Fernbach. *''Fire and Blood: The European Civil War, 1914–1945'', Verso, 2016 * ''The Origins of Nazi Violence'', New Press, 2003, translated by Janet Lloyd. * ''Understanding the Nazi Genocide: Marxism after Auschwitz'', Pluto Press,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, 1999, translated by Peter Drucker. * ''The Jews & Germany: From the "Judeo-German Symbiosis" to the Memory of Auschwitz'', U. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1995, translated by Daniel Weissbort. * ''The Marxists and the Jewish question. The history of a Debate (1843-1943)'', Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1994, translated by Bernard Gibbons,


References


External links


Cornell University biography"Nazism’s roots in European culture - Production line of murder"
in ''
Le Monde diplomatique ''Le Monde diplomatique'' (meaning "The Diplomatic World" in French) is a French monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary com ...
'', February 2005
Interview with Enzo Traverso: "History can be an ‘arm of power’"
in Barcelona Metropolis Magazine, Winter, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Traverso, Enzo 1957 births Living people Historians of the Holocaust Italian communists Italian Trotskyists Italian Marxist historians Cornell University faculty Academic staff of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences 20th-century Italian historians 21st-century Italian historians