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 (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, attached to the centre for historical research at the

EHESS The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (, EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awards Master and PhD degrees alone and conjo ...

Life and career

Arlette is the youngest of three siblings born into a modest family which came to Charleville because of the needs of the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

. 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 university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

where she bore witness to the activism of

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

students during the Civil Rights Movement and

American feminists This is a timeline of feminism in the United States. It contains feminist and antifeminist events. It should contain events within the ideologies and philosophies of feminism and antifeminism. It should, however, not contain material about change ...

. 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 ...

, 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 The history of mentalities, from the French term ''histoire des mentalités'' (), is an approach to cultural history which aims to describe and analyze the ways in which historical people thought about, interacted with, and classified the world arou ...

. She then specialised in the study of the poorest communities of the capital. In 2016 she was awarded the

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is an international group of awards that recognize and support outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. Nine prizes of $300,000 are awarded each year to outstand ...

. 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 France Culture () is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist ...

, 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 History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

inspired her to analyse the mechanisms of power. With him, she co-edited a volume that analysed

lettres de cachet ''Lettres de cachet'' (; ) were letters signed by the king of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal. They contained orders directly from the king, often to enforce actions and judgments that could not be ...

against unruly family members such as those engaged in

adultery Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

against their spouse during the reign of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, ''Le Desordre des Familes: Lettres de Cachet des Archives de la Bastille au XVII siecle'' (1982). In 2017, this was translated into English as ''Disorderly Families: Infamous Letters from the Bastille Archives'' (2017) http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/book/disorderly-families

Bibliography

* ''Vivre dans la rue à Paris au XVIIIe'' siècle (1979) * ''Le désordre des familles: lettres de cachet des Archives de la Bastille au XVIIe siecle'' (1982) (Translated by Thomas Scott-Railton: ''Disorderly Families: Infamous Letters From the Bastille Archives'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) (2017) * ''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 Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research