Background

Christophe Charle was born on July 28, 1951, in Paris, France.

Education

Christophe attended Lycée Henri-IV and École Normale Supérieure. He completed a thesis in the 3rd cycle of history under the supervision of Pierre Vilar and a State doctorate under the direction of Maurice Agulhon.

Career

Christophe Charle was a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique from 1978 to 1991 then a professor at the University of Lyon III. He has been a professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne since 1993 and was an associate professor at the Institut d'études politiques in Paris from 1992 to 2001. He is a specialist in social and cultural history.

Since 2003, he has been a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (Chair of Comparative History of Western European Societies) and, since 2000, Director of the Institut d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine.

He has published numerous books on the history of intellectuals, academics, writers, theatre, the press. Among his works are "Social History of France in the XIXth century" (1991), "The Republic of the university" (1994), "The Intellectuals in Europe in the XIXth century" (1996, new edition 2001), "Paris end of the century, culture and politics" (1998), "The Crisis of Imperial Societies" (2001), "Theaters in capitals, the birth of the entertainment society in Paris, Berlin, London and Vienna, 1860-1914" (2008), "Discordance of time. A Brief History of Modernity" (2011), "History of universities XII-XXIth century" (2012) and "Homo Historicus. Reflection on history, historians and the social sciences" (2013). In 2015, he published "Cultural Deregulation, an essay on the history of cultures in Europe."

Achievements

• Christophe Charle distinguished himself as a professor of history at the Université of Paris I - Pantheon-Sorbonne, and also as the director of the Institut d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine at Paris's Centre National de Recherche Scientifique. His body of work is chiefly concerned with the social history of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century France. He has written extensively on the role and development of French intellectual life and its intersection with social and cultural elites. His books and articles are distinguished for their subtlety of thought and the complexity of analysis. Charle is considered an academic rather than a popular historian.

Works

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  • Birth of the Intellectuals: 1880-1900 2015
  • Theatres En Capitales 2008
  • Histoire des universités: XIIIe-XXIe siècle 2012
  • A Social History of France in the 19th Century 1994
  • Transnational Intellectual Networks: Forms of Academic Knowledge and the Search for Cultural Identities 2004
  • La dérégulation culturelle: Essai d'histoire des cultures en Europe au XIXe siècle 2015
  • Paris fin de siècle: Culture et politique 1998
  • Anglo-French Attitudes: Comparisons and Transfers Between English and French Intellectuals Since the Eighteenth Century 2007
  • Histoire sociale de la France au XIXe siècle 1991
  • La Crise des sociétés impériales. Allemagne, France, Grande-Bretagne (1900-1940). Essai d'histoire s 2001
  • La Cultura Senza Regole: Letteratura, Spettacolo E Arti Nell'europa Dell'ottocento 2019

Views

Charle presents a wealth of social data to depict the dynamic activity of the bourgeoisie’s attempts to attain status and power in France’s Thud Republic. He gives the most attention to three social groups: corporate business, bureaucracy, and the university. He uses statistics on marriage patterns, education, and social origins and lists detailing which intellectuals and bureaucrats served on which committee, along with life stories to show the struggles of people trying to move up the social ladder during the late nineteenth century. During the time of the Third Republic, there was sufficient social mobility to allow for upward movement, thereby creating a situation of intense competition. Charle points out that previous to the start of the Thud French Republic, admission to the ranks of the elite was based on social connections and an old family name. This system changed due to the advent of electoral politics and expanded educational opportunities, among other things. Thus, the elite became more of a meritocracy, the deciding factors of the level and quality of education replacing membership in the aristocracy. The author argues that specialization of position, or bureaucratization, and the emergence of democracy became significant factors in the shaping of the new elite. Through the recognition of opportunities for advancement, the ascending bourgeoisie began to focus attention on securing more status and power and formed strategies to secure their goals. The old guard adapted, unwilling to give their hold on power, and acquired the skills and knowledge to maintain at least a portion of their dominance. This was particularly evident in the higher echelons of the business world.

Charle considers the impact of the Dreyfus affair, a major polarizing factor in French society at the end of the nineteenth century. Shifting social patterns and the emotions they inspired led the author to view this event in a different light. Based on his research and analysis of the times, Charle rejects the conventional view that the Dreyfus controversy was rooted in antiSemitism. Rather, he argues that it was the result of jealousy and tension within the new elite. Charle views the Dreyfus affair as part of a pattern of ideological and political struggles that resulted from competition between different strata of the elite.

Membership

Christophe is a member of the sponsorship committee of the French Coordination for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence and president of ARESER (Association for reflection on higher education and research), an association he founded with Pierre Bourdieu in 1992.

• ARESER , France

• French Coordination for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence , France

Connections

colleague:

Pierre Bourdieu

colleague:

Maurice Agulhon

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011