THE ETHOS OF A SCIENTIFIC HISTORIAN: Fustel de Coulanges

Abstract

[Insisting that “Patriotism is a virtue and history a science, and the two should not be confounded,” N. D. Fustel de Coulanges (1830–1889) broke with the earlier traditions of French historiography and sought to foster the scientific study of history in France. In his teaching, first at Strasbourg and, after the defeat of 1870, in Paris, he called for a proper historical method, which would emphasize the scrupulous study of original texts and cultivate a historical sense which would see the past in its uniqueness and not as a backward projection of the present. His best known work, The Ancient City (1864) reinterpreted the life of Greek and Roman cities by analyzing the relations of religious beliefs to political and economic institutions. In his monumental Histoire des institutions politiques de l’ancienne France (6 vols., 1875–1892) he described the historic origins of medieval France without becoming a partisan in the old controversy concerning the relative importance and merit of Latin versus Germanic influences on the development of France.