Eugen Joseph Weber (April 24, 1925 – May 17, 2007) was a Romanian-born American historian with a special focus on
Western civilization
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
.
Weber became a historian because of his interest in politics, an interest dating back to at least the age of 12. He described his political awakening as a realization of social injustices: "It was my vague dissatisfaction with social hierarchy, the subjection of servants and peasants, the diffuse violence of everyday life in relatively peaceful country amongst apparently gentle folk".
Weber's books and articles have been translated into several languages. He earned many accolades for his scholarship, including membership in the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
, membership to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, and fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
, the
Guggenheim Foundation, the
American Council of Learned Societies
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
and the
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
. His 1,300-page ''Modern History of Europe: Men, Cultures, and Societies from the Renaissance to the Present'' (1971) was described "a phenomenal job of synthesis and interpretation that reflects Eugen's wide and deep learning," by his UCLA history colleague Hans Rogger. In addition to his distinguished American Awards and honors, he was awarded the
Ordre des Palmes Académiques
A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...
in 1977 for his contribution to French culture.
Career
Born in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
,
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
, he was the son of Sonia and Emmanuel Weber, a well-to-do industrialist. When Weber was ten, his parents hired a private tutor, but the tutor did not stay long. At age ten, Weber was already reading The
Three Musketeers
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 n ...
by
Alexander Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer. ...
, adventure novels by
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...
, poetry by
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
and
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
. Weber was also reading
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
,
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
and "every cheap paperback I could afford". At age 12, he was sent to boarding school in
Herne Bay
Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...
, in south-eastern England, and later to
Ashville College
Ashville College is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils aged 2–18 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.
It was founded in 1877 as a boarding school for boys by the United Methodist Free Churches. It incorp ...
,
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
.
[Burns (1999)]
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he served with the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
in Belgium, Germany, and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
between 1943 and 1947, and rising to the rank of captain. Afterward, Weber studied history at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
and ''
Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris
, motto_lang = fr
, mottoeng = Roots of the Future
, type = Public research university''Grande école''
, established =
, founder = Émile Boutmy
, accreditation ...
'' (Sciences Po) in Paris.
While in France he met Jacqueline Brument-Roth, marrying her in 1950.
Returning to Britain, Weber entered
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
, studying French and European history under
David Thomson and graduating with a BA in 1950. He remained at Cambridge to study for a PhD, but his dissertation thesis was rejected after the external examiner,
Alfred Cobban
Alfred Bert Carter Cobban (24 May 1901 – 1 April 1968) was an English historian and Professor of French History at University College, London, who along with prominent French historian François Furet advocated a classical liberal view of the F ...
of the University of London, gave a negative review, saying it lacked sufficient archival sources.
Weber briefly taught at Emmanuel College (1953–1954) and the
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
(1954–1955) before settling in the United States, where he taught first at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
(1955–1956) and then, until 1993 on his retirement, at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(UCLA).
Eugen Weber wrote a column titled "LA Confidential" for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. He also wrote for several French popular newspapers and, in 1989, presented an American
public television
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
series, ''The Western Tradition'', which consisted of fifty-two lectures of 30 minutes each. He died in
Brentwood, Los Angeles
Brentwood is a suburban neighborhood in the Los Angeles Westside, Westside region of Los Angeles.
History
General
Modern development began after the establishment of the Sawtelle Veterans Home, Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disab ...
, California, aged 82.
Methodology
Weber took a pragmatic approach to history. He once observed:
Nothing is more concrete than history, nothing less interested in theories or in abstract ideas. The great historians have fewer ideas about history than amateurs do; they merely have a way of ordering their facts to tell their story. It isn’t theories they look for, but information, documents, and ideas about how to find and handle them.
Impact
Weber is associated with several important academic arguments. His book: ''Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France 1870–1914'' is a classic presentation of
modernization theory
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
. Although other historians such as
Henri Mendras had put forward similar theories about the modernization of the French countryside, Weber's book was amongst the first to focus on changes in the period between 1870 and 1914. Weber emphasizes that well into the 19th century few French citizens regularly spoke French, but rather regional languages or dialects such as
Breton
Breton most often refers to:
*anything associated with Brittany, and generally
** Breton people
** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany
** Breton (horse), a breed
**Ga ...
,
Gascon,
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
,
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
,
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
,
Alsatian, and
Corsican. Even in French-speaking areas provincial loyalties often transcended the putative bond of the nation. Between 1870 and 1914, Weber argued, a number of new forces penetrated the previously isolated countryside. These included the judicial and school systems, the army, the church, railways, roads, and a market economy. The result was the wholesale transformation of the population from "peasants," basically ignorant of the wider nation, to Frenchmen.
His book ''Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages'' chronicles "apocalyptic visions and prophecies from Zarathustra to yesterday ... . beginning with the ancients of the West and the Orient and, especially ... the Jews and earliest Christians," finding that "an absolute belief in the end of time, when good would do final battle with evil, was omnipresent," inspiring "Crusades, scientific discoveries, works of art, voyages such as those of Columbus, rebellions" and reforms including American abolitionism.
Weber proclaimed in "The Western Tradition" lectures of 1989:
"...here we are at the end of the 20th century with a lot of people lonely in a Godless world—and now they are denied not only God but the solid substance of judgment and perception". "The world has always been disgracefully managed but now you no longer know to whom to complain."
After he traversed the whole spectrum of western thought, tradition, civilization, and progress in The Western Tradition, Weber pointed at some of the profound ancient lessons from the Bible and laments the fact that many people today do not read it themselves. As an agnostic, Weber viewed the Bible primarily as an important piece of historical literature, calling it: "the epitome of wisdom, violence, high aspiration, and the hurtful achievements of mankind". He concluded his final lecture in the Western Tradition series by praising Western man as Promethean and then with Wordsworth's poetic phrase, "we feel that we are greater than we know."
A 2010 biography by Stanford Franklin, "Eugen Weber: The Greatest Historian of our Times: Lessons of Greatness to the Future",
presents Weber's life and works in grandiose terms as the greatest modern historian.
Works
*''The Nationalist Revival in France, 1905–1914'', 1959.
*''Action Française: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth Century France'' (1962).
*"Nationalism, Socialism and National-Socialism in France," ''
French Historical Studies
''French Historical Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering French history. It publishes articles in English and French. The journal is published by Duke University Press on behalf of the Society for French Historical Stu ...
,'' Vol. 2, 1962. pp. 273–30
in JSTOR*''Satan France-Maçon: la mystification de Leo Taxil'', 1964.
*''Varieties of Fascism: Doctrines of Revolution in the Twentieth Century'' (1964).
*co-edited with
Hans Rogger
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...
, ''The European Right: A Historical Profile'', 1965.
*"Pierre de Coubertin and the Introduction of Organized Sports in France," pp. 3–26 from ''
Journal of Contemporary History
The ''Journal of Contemporary History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of history in all parts of the world since 1930. It was established in 1966 by Walter Laqueur and George L. Mosse. Originally published by Wei ...
'', Vol. 5, 1970.
*"Gymnastics and Sports in Fin-de-Siècle France: Opium of the Classes?", pp. 70–98 from ''
American Historical Review
''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...
'', Vol. 76, 1971.
*''A Modern History of Europe: Men, Cultures, and Societies from the Renaissance to the Present'' (1971).
*''Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914'' (1976).
*"The Second Republic, Politics, and the Peasant," ''
French Historical Studies
''French Historical Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering French history. It publishes articles in English and French. The journal is published by Duke University Press on behalf of the Society for French Historical Stu ...
'' Vol. 11, No. 4 (Autumn, 1980), pp. 521–55
in JSTOR*"Comment la politique vint aux paysans: A Second Look at Peasant Politicization," ''
American Historical Review
''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...
,'' Vol. 87, 1982 pp. 357–38
in JSTOR*"Fascism(s) and Some Harbingers," ''
Journal of Modern History
''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...
,'' Vol. 54, No. 4, December 1982
*"Reflections on the Jews in France," from ''The Jews in Modern France'', edited by
Frances Malino and
Bernard Wasserstein
Bernard Wasserstein (born 22 January 1948 in London) is a British historian.
Early life
Bernard Wasserstein was born in London on 22 January 1948. Wasserstein's father, Abraham Wasserstein (1921–1995), born in Frankfurt, was Professor of Class ...
, 1985.
*''France, Fin de Siècle'' (1986).
*''My France: Politics, Culture, Myth'', 1991.
*''The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s'' (1994).
*''Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages'' (2000).
Notes
References
*Amato, Joseph A. "Eugen Weber's France" pp. 879–882 from ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 25, 1992.
*Burns, Michael. "Weber, Eugen" in ''The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'' edited by Kelly Boyd, Volume 2, London:
Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
Fitzroy Dearborn was an American publisher of academic library reference titles with offices in London and Chicago. It was acquired by Taylor & Francis as an imprint of Routledge Reference in 2002, before Taylor & Francis merged with Informa.
At ...
, (1999) . pp. 1284–1285
* Quinn, Frederick. "An Elegy for Eugen Weber," ''Historian,'' Spring 2009, Vol. 71 Issue 1, pp. 1–30
* Franklin, Stanford and Kanyane, Chris (2010) ''Eugen Weber Greatest Historian of our Times: Lessons of Greatness to the Future'', Global Centre For Research World Wide
*
External links
*
''The Western Tradition'' YouTube pageEugen Weber Greatest Historian Of Our Times: Lessons of Greatness To The Futureby Stanford Franklin & Dr Chris Kanyane, PhD (History)
Central Western University, Arlington, Texas (US).
An episode from a TV series: "The Western Tradition"– Google Video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Eugene
1925 births
2007 deaths
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Historians of fascism
Historians of France
Recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
People educated at Ashville College
Writers from Bucharest
Romanian emigrants to the United States
Romanian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Scholars of nationalism
Sciences Po alumni
University of Alberta faculty
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
University of Iowa faculty
University of Paris alumni
Historians from California
20th-century American male writers
Members of the American Philosophical Society