Background
Henri Pirenne was born at Verviers, Belgium on December 23, 1862.
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- Works
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- Works
book
Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe
(2014 Reprint of 1937 Edition. Full facsimile of the origi...)
2014 Reprint of 1937 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Henri Pirenne's reputation today rests on three contributions to European history: for what has become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning the origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; for a distinctive view of Belgium's medieval history; and for his model of the development of the medieval city. Pirenne argued that profound social, economic, cultural, and religious movements in the long-term resulted from equally profound underlying causes, and this attitude influenced Marc Bloch and the outlook of the French "Annales" School of social history. Though Pirenne had his opponents who disagreed on essential points, recent historians of the Middle Ages usually take Pirenne's main theses, however much they are modified, as starting points.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161427598X/?tag=2022091-20
Mohammed and Charlemagne
( The final work of the great Belgian historian Henri Pir...)
The final work of the great Belgian historian Henri Pirenne, this remarkable classic published after his death offers a revolutionary perspective on how Europe under the influence of a Roman Empire centered in Constantinople evolved into the Europe of Charlemagne and the Middle Ages. Departing from the standard view that Germanic invasions obliterated the Roman Empire, Pirenne advances the radical new thesis that "the cause of the break with the tradition of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam," and event of historical proportions that prevented the western Mediterranean from being what it had always been: a thoroughfare of commerce and thought. It became instead what Pirenne refers to as "a Musulman lake," thereby causing "the axis of life to shift northwards from the Mediterranean" for the first time in history. Brilliant and controversial, this volume garnered these words of praise from the critics: "It is a dull reader indeed who does not recognize the light of genius in the pages of this book, without doubt a landmark in contemporary historiography." G. C. Boyce, Annals of the American Academy. " Pirenne's crowning triumph. The fire of his genius, the boldness of his mind, his profound learning and vivid pen make this volume pleasant reading." Commonweal. " an important, seminal book, worthy to close one of the most distinguished careers in European scholarship." Saturday Review of Literature. Pirenne's masterly study is essential reading for history students, medievalists, and general readers with an interest in the decline of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of the Middle Ages.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486420116/?tag=2022091-20
The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism
(In The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism Henri P...)
In The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism Henri Pirenne identifies periods into which our economic history may be divided and distinct and separate class of capitalists. Pirenne saw that at every change in economic organization there is a breach of continuity as if the capitalists who have up to that time been active, recognize that they are incapable of adapting to conditions that are unknown to. They then withdraw from the struggle and become an aristocracy, which if it again plays a part in the course of affairs, does so in a passive manner only, assuming the role of silent partners. A word first of all to indicate clearly the point of view which characterizes the study. I shall not enter into the question of the formation of capital itself, that is, of the sum total of the goods employed by their possessor to produce more goods at a profit. It is the capitalist alone, the holder of capital, who will hold our attention. My purpose is simply to characterize, for the various epochs of economic history, the nature of this capitalist and to search for his origin. Pirenne's concept is an interesting study looking back at recent past decades that have seen a flood of "New Rich" their methods of success and social beliefs. Henri was a leading Belgian historian, a medievalist of Walloon descent who wrote a masterful multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a national hero. Pirenne argued that profound, long-term social, economic, cultural, and religious movements resulted from profound underlying causes, and this attitude influenced Marc Bloch and the outlook of the French Annales School of social history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612031064/?tag=2022091-20
Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (Princeton Classics)
( Nearly a century after it was first published in 1925, ...)
Nearly a century after it was first published in 1925, Medieval Cities remains one of the most provocative works of medieval history ever written. Here, Henri Pirenne argues that it was not the invasion of the Germanic tribes that destroyed the civilization of antiquity, but rather the closing of Mediterranean trade by Arab conquest in the seventh century. The consequent interruption of long-distance commerce accelerated the decline of the ancient cities of Europe. Pirenne challenges conventional wisdom by attributing the origins of medieval cities to the revival of trade, tracing their growth from the tenth century to the twelfth. He also describes the important role the middle class played in the development of the modern economic system and modern culture. Featuring a new introduction by Michael McCormick, this Princeton Classics edition of Medieval Cities is essential reading for all students of medieval European history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691162395/?tag=2022091-20
Henri Pirenne
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also known as
Jean Henri Otto Lucien Marie Pirenne
Education
At the University of Liège he studied history with Godefroid Kurth and Paul Fredericq. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1883 and won a scholarship that allowed him to study in Berlin and Paris.
Career
In 1885 he organized the teaching of paleography and diplomatics at the University of Liège, and in 1886 he was named professor at the University of Ghent, where he remained for 40 years.
During World War I Pirenne was imprisoned for resisting the German occupation. Moved from prison camp to prison camp, he learned Russian in one, taught Belgian history to the Belgian prisoners in a second, and without the aid of books or notes wrote a History of Europe (1936) in a third. From his seminar at Ghent there issued a large number of eminent Belgian and American medievalists.
In 1893 Pirenne published an article on the origins of medieval towns. Worked out in later articles and in two books, Belgian Democracy: Its Early History (1910) and Medieval Cities (1925), his thesis came to dominate studies of medieval urban institutions.
In 1922 Pirenne published another provocative article, "Mohammed and Charlemagne, " in which he argued that the break between antiquity and the Middle Ages came with the closing of the Mediterranean by the Moslem conquest of Africa and Spain. Worked out in a book by the same title (1937), the thesis inspired other historians to turn their attention to the economic history of the early Middle Ages, and it still remains the starting point for discussions of the societies of Merovingian and Carolingian Europe. Pirenne also wrote a History of Belgium (7 vols. , 1900 - 1932).
Achievements
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His teaching created a major school of Belgian medievalists. His studies become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; for a distinctive view of Belgium's medieval history; and for his model of the development of the medieval city.
He also became prominent in the nonviolent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I. His famous two-volume A History of Europe: From the End of the Roman World in the West to the Beginnings of the Western States, a remarkable but incomplete work which Pirenne wrote while imprisoned in Germany during World War I.
Henri Pirenne donated the majority of his personal library to the Academia Belgica in Rome. In 1933, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Human Sciences.
Works
book
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Mohammed and Charlemagne
( The final work of the great Belgian historian Henri Pir...)
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The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism
(In The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism Henri P...)
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Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (Princeton Classics)
( Nearly a century after it was first published in 1925, ...)
-
Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe
(2014 Reprint of 1937 Edition. Full facsimile of the origi...)
-
Mohammed and Charlemagne
Politics
He argued that capitalism originated in Europe's cities, as did democracy. His "Merchant Enterprise School" opposed Marxism but shared many of Marx's ideas on the merchant class.
Although a liberal himself, he wrote his seven-volume Histoire de Belgique with such a masterly balance that Catholics, liberals and socialists could quote from it with equal respect in their newspapers or sometimes even in their political gatherings.
Views
Pirenne maintained that the early medieval town was only a fortress, economically dependent on the countryside. With the economic revival of the 10th and 11th centuries, however, old cities were reborn and new towns created in the form of trading settlements near the older fortresses. These created their own law and a new status of personal freedom. Though Pirenne's argument was largely intuitive, the validity of his thesis for northern European towns was demonstrated by the research his views inspired.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"He was a teacher without peer, " a student later wrote, "exciting his young students with his forceful and colorful rhetoric and by the originality of his ideas. "
Connections
References
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Born
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Died
January 24, 1935 (aged 72) -
Nationality
Belgian