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Maurice Halbwachs

 

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Maurice Halbwachs



 
 
Maurice Halbwachs (11 March 1877 - 16 March 1945) was a French philosopher and sociologist known for developing the concept of collective memory
Collective memory

Collective memory is a term coined by Maurice Halbwachs, separating the notion from the individual memory. The collective memory is shared, passed on and also constructed by the group, or modern society....
.

Born in Reims
Reims

The city of Reims lies in the Champagne-Ardenne region in northeastern France 129 km east-northeast of Paris.Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
, Halbwachs attended the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure

The ?cole normale sup?rieure is a France Grandes ?coles . The ENS was initially conceived during the French Revolution, and intended to provide the First French Republic with a new body of teacher, trained in the critical spirit and secular values of the the Enlightenment....
 in Paris. There he studied philosophy with Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson

Henri-Louis Bergson was a French philosophy, influential in the first half of the 20th century....
, who influenced him greatly. He agregated
Agrégation

In France, the agr?gation is a French Civil Service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agr?g?s....
 in Philosophy in 1901. He taught at various lycées before traveling to Germany in 1904, where he studied at the University of Göttingen and worked on cataloging Leibniz's papers.






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Maurice Halbwachs (11 March 1877 - 16 March 1945) was a French philosopher and sociologist known for developing the concept of collective memory
Collective memory

Collective memory is a term coined by Maurice Halbwachs, separating the notion from the individual memory. The collective memory is shared, passed on and also constructed by the group, or modern society....
.

Born in Reims
Reims

The city of Reims lies in the Champagne-Ardenne region in northeastern France 129 km east-northeast of Paris.Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
, Halbwachs attended the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure

The ?cole normale sup?rieure is a France Grandes ?coles . The ENS was initially conceived during the French Revolution, and intended to provide the First French Republic with a new body of teacher, trained in the critical spirit and secular values of the the Enlightenment....
 in Paris. There he studied philosophy with Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson

Henri-Louis Bergson was a French philosophy, influential in the first half of the 20th century....
, who influenced him greatly. He agregated
Agrégation

In France, the agr?gation is a French Civil Service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agr?g?s....
 in Philosophy in 1901. He taught at various lycées before traveling to Germany in 1904, where he studied at the University of Göttingen and worked on cataloging Leibniz's papers. He was nominated to co-edit an edition of Leibniz's work which never came to fruition. He returned to France in 1905 where he met Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim

?mile Durkheim was a France sociologist whose contributions were instrumental in the formation of sociology and anthropology. His work and editorship of the first journal of sociology, L'Ann?e Sociologique, helped establish sociology within academia as an accepted Social sciences....
 and became interested in sociology. He soon joined the editorial board of L'Année Sociologique
L'Année Sociologique

L'Ann?e Sociologique was a sociology journal founded in 1898 by ?mile Durkheim, who also served as its editor. It was published annually until 1925, and returned to publication as Annales Sociologiques between 1934 and 1942....
, where he worked with François Simiand
François Simiand

Fran?ois Simiand was a French sociology and economics best known as a participant in the Ann?e Sociologique. As a member of the Historical school of economics, Simiand predicated a rigorous factual and statistical basis for theoretical models and policies....
 editing the Economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
 and Statistics
Statistics

Statistics is a Mathematics pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It also provides tools for prediction and forecasting based on data....
 section. In 1909 he returned to Germany to study Marxism
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
 and economics in Berlin.

Throughout World War I, Halbwachs worked at the War Ministry. Shortly after the end of the war, he became professor of sociology
Sociology

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
 and pedagogy
Pedagogy

Pedagogy , or paedagogy is the art or science of being a teacher. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
 at the University of Strasbourg
University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
. He remained in this position for over a decade, taking leave for a year as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
, when he was called to the Sorbonne
University of Paris

The historic University of Paris first appeared in the 12th century. In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous university . The university is often referred to as the Sorbonne or La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution founded about 1257 by Robert de Sorbon....
 in 1935. There he taught sociology and worked closely with Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss

Marcel Mauss was a France sociologist....
 and served as the editor of Annales de Sociologie, the successor journal to L'Année Sociologique. In 1944 he received one of France's highest honors, a chair at the Collège de France
Collège de France

The Coll?ge de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Ecoles....
 in Social Psychology
Social psychology

Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. Scholars in this interdisciplinarity area are typically either psychology or sociology, though all social psychologists employ both the individual and the group as their Unit of analysis....
. A longtime socialist, Halbwachs was detained by the Gestapo
Gestapo

The was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel , it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst and also a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei ....
 after the Nazi
Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
 occupation of Paris and deported to Buchenwald, where he died of dysentery in 1945.

Part of his books were offered by his widow to the library of the Centre d'études sociologiques and are now held at the Human and Social Sciences Library Paris Descartes-CNRS
Human and Social Sciences Library Paris Descartes-CNRS

The Human and Social Sciences Library Paris Descartes-CNRS is one of the most important French libraries concerning sociology, linguistics and science education....
.

Bibliography

  • Maurice Halbwachs: Intellectuel en Guerres Mondiales, 1914-1945. Anette Becker. 2003. Agnès Viénot.
  • Halbwachs, Maurice, On collective memory, Chicago (IL), The University of Chicago Press, 1992
    • translated from: Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1952, originally published in Les Travaux de L'Année Sociologique, Paris, F. Alcan, 1925
    • edited, translated and introduction by Lewis A. Coser
      Lewis A. Coser

      Lewis Coser was an American sociologist.Born in Berlin , Coser was the first sociologist to try to bring together structural functionalism and conflict theory; his work was focused on finding the functions of social conflict....
      , includes a translation of the conclusion of: La Topographie légendaire des évangiles en terre sainte: étude de mémoire collective, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1941
  • Halbwachs, Maurice, The collective memory, New York, Harper & Row Colophon Books, 1980, 182 pages
    • pdfs of chapters 1 and 2 available (pp. 22-49 and 50-87) on
    • translated from: La mémoire collective, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1950
    • introduction by Mary Douglas
      Mary Douglas

      Dame Mary Douglas, Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the British Academy was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism....
      , includes a translation of: ‘La mémoire collective chez les musiciens’, Revue philosophique, no. 3 – 4 (1939)


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