The Dilemma of the American Historian of Modern France Reconsidered

France.' In it I pointed out that American scholars had yet to produce a book on modern French history recognized by our French peers, the academic historians, as a major contribution to French historical literature comparable to the great French works such as Georges Lefebvre's Les Paysans de Nord pendant la Revolution franfaise or Ernest Labrousse's La Crise de l'egcononzie frangaise a la fin de l'ancien regime et au debut de la Revolution franfaise, books that almost completely renewed their subjects and altered the ways in which the histories of these subjects had been conceived. I reported further that between 1920 and 1957 the Revue historique had noted in reviews, bibliographical notices, or bibliographical articles 120 books on modern French history by Americans. Only twenty of these received separate, fulllength reviews, and but seven of the latter were judged to make original and significant contributions to modern French history. Eight others mentioned more briefly were also accorded favorable recognition. Nearly half of these fifteen blessed by the Revue historique's approval were doctoral dissertations, the products of the year or so of archival research in France that has been part of the training for most American doctoral students in our field. Considering the books of mature American scholars the French gave their approval particularly to books on diplomatic history, not strictly on French history alone, such as William L. Langer's European Alliances and Align

Dilemma · Epistemology · Political science · European Political History Analysis · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Philosophy

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