Collective Biography and Europe’s Cultural Legacy

Abstract

From the 1990s onwards there has been growing interest in the study of biography. As opposed to those who are skeptical of the biographical method, we defend the historiographical importance of collective biographies by contrasting them with biographical collections. By discussing the historical background of biography as a branch of history, and by focusing on the aims, methodology and outcomes of collective biographies, we attempt to show how they both extend and deepen our concept of historical research.

Notes

1. Susan Ware, “Writing Women’s Lives: One Historian’s Perspective,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.3 (2010): 435.

2. Keith Thomas, Changing Conceptions of National Biography: The Oxford DNB in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 21.

3. Paula R. Backscheider, Reflections on Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), xiii.

4. This is the title of the chapter written by Justin Kaplan, in The Literary Biography: Problems and Solutions, ed. Dale Salwak (London: Macmillan, 1996), 1.

5. Cited in James Walter, “The Utility of Short Lives,” Biography 29.2 (2006): 329.

6. Cited in David Nasaw, “AHR Roundtable: Historians and Biography. Introduction,” American Historical Review 114.3 (2009): 575.

7. Pierre Bourdieu, “La ilusión biográfica,” Historia y fuente oral 2 (1989): 27–33.

8. François Dosse, Le Pari biographique. Écrire une vie (Paris: La Découverte, 2005), 480.

9. Barbara Caine, Biography and History (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 3.

10. Ware, “Writing Women’s Lives: One Historian’s Perspective,” 413.

11. Arnaldo Momigliano, The Development of Greek Biography (Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).

12. Philippe Levillain, “Les protagonistes: de la biographie,” in Pour une histoire politique, ed. René Rémond (Paris: Edition du Seuil, 1988), 121–59.

13. Bibliotheca Sanctorum, 12 vols., 2 apps., 2d ed. (Rome: Città Nuova Editrice, 1990).

14. James Wills, ed., Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, from the earliest times to present period, arranged in chronological order, and embodying a History of Ireland in the Lives of Irishmen, 6 vols. (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1997), 1.4; originally published in Dublin, 1839–47.

15. René Pillorget, “La biografía, género histórico. Evolución reciente en Francia,” in Las individualidades en la historia. Actas de las II Conversaciones internacionales de historia, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, 21–23 March 1979, ed. Valentín Vázquez de Prada, Luis Adao da Fonseca, and Alfredo Floristan (Pamplona: EUNSA, 1985), 81–114.

16. Julio Caro Baroja, “Género biográfico y conocimiento antropológico,” in Biografías y vidas humanas (San Sebastián: Txertoa, 1986), 22. See Joseba Agirreazkuenaga, “Julio Caro Baroja (JCB) maestro in Social History and Non Conformist Intellectual (Madrid 13-XI-1914-Bera de Bidasoa, 18-VIII-1995),” History Workshop Journal 42 (1996): 195–206.

17. “Il me semble que nous serons des spectateurs plus zélés et des imitateurs plus ardents des vies les meilleures si celles qui sont mauvaises et objets de blâme ne nous sont pas tout à fait inconnues,” cited in François Dosse, Le Pari biographique. Écrire une vie (Paris: La Découverte, 2005), 140. For an analysis of this use of biography by Puritan moralists, see Mariangela Mosca Bonsignore, “Tanti cattivi per una biografia: The Life and Death of Mr. Badman di John Bunyan,” in Scrivere le vite. Consonanze critiche sulla biografia, ed. Valeria Gianolio (Turin: Tirrenia stampatori, 1996), 49–61.

18. Georg W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree (New York: Willey Book Co., 1900), 72.

19. This has been described as “the conscious alienation of men” or “The conscious practice of individuals.” See Vitaly Kouznetsov, “La philosophie de l’histoire chez Voltaire,” in Jacques D’Hont, Hegel et le siècle des Lumières (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1974), 40 and 49, cited by Manuel Alonso Olea, Alienación. Historia de una palabra (Mexico: UNAM, 1988), 87–88.

20. Georg W. Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, trans. John Sibree (New York: Willey Book Co., 1900), 50. “The remark next in order is, that each particular National genius is to be treated as only One Individual in the process of Universal History” (53).

21. Stephen E. Koss, “British Political Biography as History,” Political Science Quarterly 88.4 (1973): 715.

22. Sabina Loriga, “La biographie comme problème,” in Jeux d’échelles. La micro-analyse à l’expérience, ed. Jacques Revel (Paris: Gallimard-Le Seuil, 1996), 209–31.

23. Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History (London: James Fraser, 1841), i. Cited in Lucy Riall, “The Shallow End of History? The Substance and Future of Political Biography,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.3 (2010): 377.

24. André Maurois, Aspects de la biographie (Paris: Au sans Pareil, 1928), 48.

25. Sergio Romano, Interview, in Biografia e Storiografia, ed. Alceo Riosa (Milano: Franco Angeli, 1983), 17. See also Bianca Valota, “Storia e Biografia,” Storia della Storiografia 1 (1982): 89–100.

26. “Through a particular figure the modal biography points towards the ideal type he embodies. The individual is of value insofar as he illustrates a group. The singular case becomes the precursor of the general, showing the reader the average behavior of the social categories at a given moment in time.” François Dosse, Le Pari biographique. Écrire une vie (Paris: La Découverte, 2005), 213. Translated by the authors. Our argument here draws on Valeria Sgambati, “Le lusinghe della biografia,” Studi Storici 2 (1995): 397–413, and on Philippe Levillain, “Les protagonistes: de la biographie,” in Pour une histoire politique, ed. René Rémond (Paris: Edition du Seuil, 1988), 121–59. See also Antonio Morales, “En torno al auge de la biografía,” Revista de Occidente (1987): 61–76.

27. On this defence of the importance of the collective over the individual, see Michael Prestwich, “Medieval Biography,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.3 (2010): 326ff.

28. “The reappearance of politics as a central axis in historiography was joined to this, in a delayed simultaneity with the eclipse of the Kantian separation between object and subject in philosophy, and coincides with the wearing out of historical materialism, a phenomenon of intellectual history and ideas that are not entirely attributable to the collapse of existing socialism, although logically it is related to it. The revitalization of the political object has at this time adopted a massively neo-historicist form, which... some call the ‘return to the event’.” Elena Hernández Sandoica, “El presente de la historia y la carambola del historicismo,” in Sobre la historia actual entre política y cultura, ed. Elena Hernández Sandoica and Alicia Langa (Madrid: Abada editores, 2005), 289. Translated by the authors.

29. See “Leadership,” in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. David L. Sills, 17 vols. (London: Collier-Macmillan, 1972), 9.107–9.

30. “Independent of all social structures, there were, and always are, captains, whose ascent over their men has no other explanation than the esteem and sympathy the latter show them, and whose death or wounding in combat can cause panic amongst their soldiers.” René Pillorget, “La biografía, género histórico. Evolución reciente en Francia,” in Las individualidades en la historia, 102. Translated by the authors.

31. Antonio Morales, “La historia ‘con personas’,” in Sobre la historia actual entre política y cultura, ed. Elena Hernández Sandoica and Alicia Langa (Madrid: Abada editores, 2005), 75–86.

32. For Spanish examples, see Jesús Ibáñez, El regreso del sujeto: la investigación social de segundo orden (1994), and Juan José Pujadas, El método biográfico: el uso de las historias de vida en ciencias sociales, 2d ed. (2002), which reflect broader European tendencies and refer, for example, to Gaston Pineau et al., Histoires de vie, 2d ed. (1996), and Les histoires de vie (1989), which in turn draw on the sociology of Franco Ferrarotti’s Histoire et histoires de vie: la méthode biographie dans les sciences sociales (1983).

33. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul Boyer, eds., Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (1607–1950) (1971), Barbara Sicherman and Carol H. Green, eds., Notable American Women: The Modern Period (1980), and Susan Ware and Stacy Braukman, eds., Notable American Women: Completing the Twentieth Century (2004).

34. “My prey is the man,” Lucien Febvre, cited in Laurence Stone, “The Revival of Narrative: Reflections on a New Old History,” Past & Present 85 (1979): 21.

35. Stone L., “The Revival of Narrative,” 23–24.

36. Elena Hernández Sandoica, “La biografía, entre el valor ejemplar y la experiencia vivida,” Asclepio 57.1 (2005): 27. Translated by the authors.

37. José Miguel Marinas, La razón biográfica. Ética y política de la identidad (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2004), 11. Speech by Brunello Vigezzi, reproduced in Riosa, Biografia e Storiografia, 32.

38. Janet Browne, “Making Darwin: Biography and the Changing Representations of Charles Darwin,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.3 (2010): 347–73.

39. Ware, “Writing Women’s Lives: One Historian’s Perspective,” 434.

40. Giuseppe Pignatelli, “Biografia e contesto,” Contemporanea 2 (1999): 299–302. Normand K. Denzin, Interpretive Biography (Newbury Park: SAGE Publications, 1989), and Elena Hernández Sandoica, Tendencias historiográficas actuales. Escribir historia hoy (Madrid: Akal, 2004), 401–22.

41. “Beyond the classical swing of the pendulum, the spectacular return of biography probably marks a stage. French culture approaches the Anglophone cultures, traditionally more individualistic and great consumers of biographies. Television is contributing, the French literary religion is becoming blurred—as happens with all great beliefs. ... One form of consecration has died, another is installed due to the bias of hyperrealism and colour (shade, appearance). Each becomes accustomed to existing through the image—who knows whether filmed biographies are not already being prepared?” Claude Arnaud, “Le retour de la biographie: d’un tabou à l’autre,” Le Débat 54 (1989): 47. Translated by the authors.

42. Lucy Riall, “The Shallow End of History? The Substance and Future of Political Biography,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.3 (2010): 375.

43. André Maurois, Aspects de la biographie (1928). On the relationship between biography and literature, see Ulick O’Connor, Biographers and the Art of Biography (1993), and Dale Salwak, ed., The Literary Biography: Problems and Solutions (1996). The interest of these authors is centered on the possibility of writing a biography of living writers by overcoming the limitations on consulting documents. See Antony Alpers, “Biography – The Scarlet Experiment,” in The Literary Biography, where he establishes three classes of biography according to the distance in space and time between the author and the subject (12–21). The first is a biography prepared by someone who knew the personage following his recent death and who perhaps has more access to his documents. The second is written by someone who did not know the personage but who has the means of acquiring a direct and precise knowledge of the personage (the “human subject’s background”) and of his sphere of activity. The third is historical biography that is realized with documents. The third class has a better perspective due to the distance of the subject.

44. Jacques Le Goff, “Comment écrire une biographie historique aujourd’hui?” Le Debat 54 (1989): 48–53. Joseba Agirreazkuenaga, “Julio Caro Baroja (JCB) maestro in Social History and Non conformist intellectual (Madrid 13-XI-1914-Bera de Bidasoa, 18-VIII-1995),” History Workshop Journal 42 (1996): 200–202. Julio Caro Baroja, “Género biográfico y conocimiento antropológico,” in Biografías y vidas humanas (San Sebastian: Txertoa, 1986), 9–37. Giovanni Levi, “Les usages de la biographie,” Annales ESC 6 (1989): 1325–36.

45. The balance between the structure and the subject should be sought in parallel to the balance between structural history and narrative: “The key is found in the connection between the history of structures and actions, processes and experiences,” Jürgen Kocka, “El retorno a la narración? Alegato a favor de la argumentación histórica,” in Historia social y conciencia histórica (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2002), 104. Le Goff, “Comment écrire une biographie historique aujourd’hui?” 50. See also Philippe Levillain, “Les protagonistes: de la biographie,” in Pour une histoire politique, ed. René Rémond (Paris: Ed. du Seuil, 1988), 157–59.

46. “Trying to understand a life as a unique series of successive events that is sufficient in itself, without any other nexus than association with a ‘subject’ whose constancy is doubtless no more than that of a name, is at least as absurd as trying to explain a journey in the Metro without taking account of the structure, that is, the matrix of objective relations amongst the different stations.” Pierre Bourdieu, “La ilusión biográfica,” Historia y fuente oral 2 (1989): 31. Translated by the authors.

47. Baroja, “Género biográfico y conocimiento antropológico,” 17. On the universality of biography, see also Giuseppe Pignatelli, “Biografia e contesto,” Contemporanea 2 (1999): 299–302.

48. Mark Twain said: “Biography is the clothes and buttons of the man, but the real biography of a man is lived in his head twenty-four hours a day, and that you can never know.” Cited in Salwak, The Literary Biography: Problems and Solutions, ix. See Georges Dethan, “Une conception nouvelle de la biographie?” Revue d’histoire diplomatique 1 (1982): 57–67.

49. Elena Hernández Sandoica, “A propósito del retorno del historicismo. Consideraciones sobre la historiografía actual,” Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea (2003): 18.

50. For an account of academic initiatives on biography, see Albert Ghanime, “Reflexiones y datos sobre la biografía histórica en España (personajes contemporáneos),” Cercles 10 (2007): 126ff. In “La biografía como experiencia historiográfica,” Juan F. Fuentes attributes the interest in biography to “the definitive normalization of our democracy in the nineteen eighties and the overcoming of the historical necessities of the past that gave an openly militant bias to Spanish Marxist historiography,” Cercles 10 (2007): 43.

51. Charlotte Heinritz and Angela Rammstedt, “L’approche biographique en France,” Cahiers internationaux de Sociologie 91 (1991): 331–70, René Pillogert, “La biographie comme genre historique: sa situation actuelle en France,” Revue d’histoire diplomatique 1 (1982): 5–42, and more recently Catherine Valenti, “La biographie historique en France: Un essai d’historiographie,” Cercles 10 (2007): 145–61, esp. 151ff. For the Italian case, see Emma Mana, “La biografia politica: alcune osservazioni sulla produzione italiana recente,” Ricerche di Storia Politica 10 (1995): 101–16, and Claudia Gollini, “Biografia e divulgazione. La collana “La vita sociale della nuova Italia,” Italia contemporanea 193 (1993): 707–16.

52. Francisca Colomer, “Biografía y cambio social: la historia que estamos viviendo,” in Historia a debate. Actas del Congreso Internacional “A Historia a debate” celebrado el 7-11 de julio de 1993 en Santiago de Compostela, ed. Carlos Barros, 3 vols. (Santiago de Compostela: Historia a debate, 1995), 3.171. Sabina Loriga, “La biographie comme problème,” in Jeux d’échelles. La micro-analyse à l’expérience, ed. Jacques Revel (Paris: Gallimard - Le Seuil, 1996), 225ff.

53. On the contrast between the United Kingdom and other European countries, see Gabriele Turi, “La biografia: un ‘genere’ della ‘specie’ storica,” Contemporanea 2 (1999): 294–98.

54. Hernández Sandoica, “La biografía, entre el valor ejemplar y la experiencia vivida,” 23.

55. An example is Edward P. Thompson, William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary (1955). Stephen E. Koss, “British Political Biography as History,” Political Science Quarterly 88.4 (1973): 713–24.

56. Regina Pozzi, “Genere minore o impresa da maestri?” Contemporanea 2 (1999): 289–94. También Robert I. Rotberg, “Biography and Historiography: Mutual Evidentiary and Interdisciplinary Considerations,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.3 (2010): 321. John Ernest Neale, “The Biographical Approach to History,” History (1951): 196.

57. In “La biografía, género histórico. Evolución reciente en Francia,” Pillorget argues that this approach could lead to a loss of perspective on individuality as against data, which is why we do not talk of biographies but of a “biographical approach to history” (92). In contrast, James Walter argues that brief biographies in series illustrate historical processes, in “The Utility of Short Lives,” Biography 29.2 (2006): 336.

58. Neale, “The Biographical Approach to History,” 196, 203.

59. In Changing Conceptions of National Biography, Keith Thomas identifies three types of collections of biographies: “group biography, universal biography and national biography” (2).

60. Ernest Renan, cited in Thomas, Changing Conceptions of National Biography, 10.

61. Sweden: Biographiskt Lexikon öfver namnkunnige Svenskamän, 23 vols. (1835–57), continued with the Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, 10 vols. (1857–1907), and the present-day Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, 32 vols. (1918–2002). Holland: Biografisch Woordenboek Der Nederlanden, 24 vols. (1852–78), continued with the Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek (1911–37), and the present-day Biografisch Woordenboek Van Nederland, 15 vols. (1979–2001). Austria: Der grosse Oesterreichische Hausschatz: biographisches Lexicon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 60 vols. (1856–91), continued with the Neue Österreichische Biographie Ab 1815: Grosse Österreicher, 22 vols. (1923–87), and the ongoing Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950, 12 vols. (1957–2010). Germany: the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 56 vols. (1875–1912), continued with the Neue Deutsche Biographie, 21 vols. (1953–2010), to which should be added the Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR 1945–1990, 2 vols. (1996–97), dedicated to German Democratic Republic biographies. Belgium: Biographie Nationale, 28 vols. (1866–1986), plus 16 suppls. (1957–86). In the final supplement the Académie Royale announced its decision to publish a Nouvelle Biographie Nationale. France: work on the Dictionnaire de Biographie Française, 19 vols. (1933–2009), is still ongoing, with vol. 19 having reached only the letter “L.” Denmark: Dansk biograhisk Leksikon, 27 vols. (1933–44), continued with the Dansk biograhisk Leksikon, 16 vols. (1979–84). Norway: Norsk Biografisk Leksikon, 19 vols. (1921–83). Luxemburg: much later still, the Biographie nationale du Pays de Luxembourg depuis ses origines jusqu’a nos jours, 11 vols. (1949–75). Italy: one of the last countries in Europe to publish a dictionary of national biography, the first volume of which appeared in 1960: Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 75 vols. (1960–2011). Spain: no national biographical dictionary has yet appeared, in spite of the availability of national histories since the nineteenth century. In 2011, the Real Academia de la Historia published the first 25 volumes of the Diccionario Biográfico Español, although its diffusion has been delayed by the controversy arising over a part of the biographies, especially those of outstanding personages of the Francoist dictatorship.

62. For an account of the history of this Commission, see Jacques Lavalleye, Historique de la Commission de la Biographie Nationale (1966).

63. Sidney Lee, “The Dictionary of National Biography: A Statistical Account,” in The Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, 22 vols., 8th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 1.61–84

64. Thomas, Changing Conceptions of National Biography, esp. 33–56.

65. The Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (1928–36). Between 1944 and 1995 10 further volumes were published. From 1999 onwards, this was succeeded by the American National Biography, which is currently published on-line, at: http://www.anb.org. The Australian Dictionary of Biography, 17 vols. (1966–2011). The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 5 vols. (1990–2000). Iain McCalman, Jodi Parvey, and Misty Cook, eds., National Biographies & National Identity: A Critical Approach to Theory and Editorial Practice (Canberra: The Australian National University, 1996), esp.1–18, 123–33, 149–84.

66. Ramsay Cook and Réal Belanger, eds., Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire Biographique du Canada [CD-ROM] (2000).

67. Lee, “The Dictionary of National Biography: A Statistical Account,” 1.61–84.

68. This requirement was first applied in M. Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle Biographie Générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’a nos jours, avec les renseignements bibliographiques et l’indication des sources a consulter, 46 vols. (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Fils et Cie éditeurs, 1857), 1.1.

69. Different works have questioned the scant presence of women in this type of works, which shows the importance of “selection criteria.” See Patricia Grimshaw, “Female Lives and the Tradition of Nation-Making,” in National Biographies & National Identity: A Critical Aproach to Theory and Editorial Practice, ed. Iain McCalman, Jodi Parvey and Misty Cook (Canberra: The Australian National University Press, 1996), 35–53.

70. For examples, see the Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch 1774–1977 (1977), Dictionnaire des ministres de 1789 à 1989 (1990) or the Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministers (1998). See the British case at http://www.histparl.ac.uk, or the French case, Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny, eds., Dictionnaire des parlementaires français, comprenant tous les membres des assemblées françaises et tous les ministres français, depuis le 1er mai 1789 jusqu’au 1er mai 1889, avec leurs noms, état civil, états de services, actes politiques, votes parlementaires, etc., 5 vols. (1889–91), continued in Jean Jolly, ed., Dictionnaire des Parlementaires Français. Notices biographiques sur les ministres, députes et sénateurs français de 1889 à 1940, 8 vols. (1960–77). And subsequently in the Dictionnaire des Parlementaires Français. Notices biographiques sur les parlementaires français de 1940 à 1958, 4 vols. (1988–2001). For an example, see Joseba Agirreazkuenaga, ed., Bilbao desde sus alcaldes. Diccionario biográfico de los alcaldes de Bilbao y gestión municipal en tiempos de revolución liberal e industrial (1836–1901) (Bilbao: Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, 2002), Joseba Agirreazkuenaga, ed., Bilbao desde sus alcaldes. Diccionario biográfico de los alcaldes de Bilbao y gestión municipal en tiempos de revolución democráticas (1902–1937) (Bilbao: Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, 2003), and Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and Mikel Urquijo, eds., Bilbao desde sus alcaldes. Diccionario biográfico de los alcaldes de Bilbao y gestión municipal en tiempos de dictadura (1937–1979) (Bilbao: Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, 2008).

71. Jean Maitron, ed., Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier Français, 43 vols. (1964–93), Jean Maitron and Claude Pennetier, eds., Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier Français (Complément aux tomes 1 à 43: 1789–1939). Biographies nouvelles (1997), Jean Maitron and Georges Haupt, eds., Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier International. Autriche (1971), Jean Maitron and Georges Haupt, ed., Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier International. Japon, 2 vols. (1978–79), Jean Maitron, ed., Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier International. Grande Bretagne (1979), Jean Maitron, ed., Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier International. La Chine (1985). Tyler Wasson, ed., Nobel Prize Winners: An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary (1987), Paula McGuire, ed., Nobel Prize Winners Supplement, 1987–1991 (1992), Clifford Thompson, ed., Nobel Prize Winners Supplement, 1992–1996 (1997).

72. For more on this distinction, see Mikel Urquijo, “The Biographical Dictionary of the Spanish Parliamentarians: Sources and Methodological Approach,” Parliaments, Estates & Representation 28 (2008): 7–25.

73. On the criterion for inclusion, see Colin Bell, “Some Comments on the Use of Directories in Research on Elites, with Particular Reference to the Twentieth-Century Supplements of the Dictionary of National Biography,” in British Political Sociology Yearbook, 1 Elites in Western Democracy (1974): 161–71.

74. Olive Banks corrects this omission in The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists. Volume One: 1800–1930 (1985).

75. Lois W. Banner, “AHR Roundtable: Biography as History,” American Historical Review 114.3 (2009): 583.

76. Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny, eds., Dictionnaire des parlementaires français, comprenant tous les membres des assemblées françaises et tous les ministres français, depuis le 1er mai 1789 jusqu’au 1er mai 1889, avec leurs noms, état civil, états de services, actes politiques, votes parlementaires, etc., 5 vols. (Paris: Bourloton, 1889), 1.1.

77. Nasaw, “AHR Roundtable: Historians and Biography. Introduction,” 576.

78. Michael Gibbons et al., The New Production of Knowledge (London: Sage, 1994).

79. Rotberg, “Biography and Historiography: Mutual Evidentiary and Interdisciplinary Considerations,” 305. Our model is similar to that of Christophe Charle in Les Elites de la République, 1880–1900 (Paris: Fayard, 1987), 20.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain) [HAR2008-04016/HIST].