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 conceptualization, conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of ...

. He is the author of several books on

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, memory,

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

, and contemporary

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

. His books have been translated into numerous languages. After living and working in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

for over 25 years, he is currently the Susan and Barton Winokur Professor in the Humanities 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 ...

Education

Enzo Traverso obtained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

(

Laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremo ...

) in modern history at the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa () is a public research university. It is one of the largest universities in Italy and it is located in the city of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy. The original university was fou ...

(Italy) in 1982. After moving to Paris in 1985 to further pursue his academic trajectory he completed his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences 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 ...

(EHESS) in 1989, under the direction of Michael Löwy. In 2009 he achieved the academic qualification of

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

(accreditation to supervise research).

Career

From 1989 through 1991, he worked for the International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) based in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, 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 Paris 8 University (), or usually the University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis or Paris 8, is a public university in the Paris Metropolitan Area, Greater Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public ...

(1993–1995) and at

(EHESS) (1994–1997). In 1995 he was hired by the University of Picardie Jules Verne in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

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 National University of La Plata (, UNLP) is a national public research university located in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It has over 90,000 regular students, 10,000 teaching staff, 17 departments and 10 ...

, in recognition of his historical scholarship.

Works

Original works

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

Left-Wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

Melancholia Melancholia or melancholy (from ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complain ...

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

, and

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

(New Directions in

Critical Theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

)'',

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

; 2nd Revised ed., 2017, . *''

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

: An

Intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

'',

Verso ''Recto'' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In double-sided printing, each leaf h ...

, 2021, .

English translations

*''The

Marxists Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and ...

and the Jewish question. The history of a Debate (1843-1943)'', Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1994, translated by Bernard Gibbons, *''The Jews & Germany: From the " Judeo-German

Symbiosis Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction, between two organisms of different species. The two organisms, termed symbionts, can fo ...

" to the Memory of Auschwitz'', U. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1995, translated by Daniel Weissbort. *''Understanding the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

after Auschwitz'', Pluto Press,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 1999, translated by Peter Drucker. *''The Origins of

Violence'', New Press, 2003, translated by Janet Lloyd. *''Fire and Blood: The European Civil War, 1914–1945'', Verso, 2016 *''The End of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular Society, socio-Culture, cultural Norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the ...

'',

Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Pluto Press states that it publishes "radical, left‐wing non‐fiction books", and is anti-capitalist and internationalist. It belongs to The Internat ...

, London, 2016, translated by David Fernbach. *'' The Jewish Question:

of a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

Debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

'', Brill, Leiden, 2018 *''Singular Past: The I in the

Historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

'', transl. from the French by Adam Schoene, Columbia University Press, 2022.

References

External links

Cornell University biography"Nazism’s roots in European culture - Production line of murder"
in '' Le Monde diplomatique'', February 2005
Interview with Enzo Traverso: "History can be an ‘arm of power’"
in Barcelona Metropolis Magazine, Winter, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Traverso, Enzo 1957 births 20th-century Italian historians 21st-century Italian historians Academic staff of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences Cornell University faculty Historians of the Holocaust Italian communists Italian Marxist historians Italian Trotskyists Living people Potere Operaio