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178-610: Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch ( / b l ɒ k / ; French: [maʁk leɔpɔld bɛ̃ʒamɛ̃ blɔk] ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France over the course of his career. As an academic, he worked at the University of Strasbourg (1920 to 1936 and 1940 to 1941),

356-739: A histoire totale , or histoire tout court , a complete study of a historic problem. Bloch was shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France in World War II for his active membership of the French Resistance , and Febvre carried on the Annales approach in the 1940s and 1950s. It was during this time that he mentored Braudel, who would become one of the best-known exponents of this school. Braudel's work came to define

534-662: A "purely human basis" for morality. The first ethical society along these lines in Britain was founded in 1886. By 1896 the four London societies formed the Union of Ethical Societies, and between 1905 and 1910 there were over fifty societies in Great Britain, seventeen of which were affiliated with the Union. The Union of Ethical Societies would later incorporate as the Ethical Union, a registered charity, in 1928. Under

712-521: A "second" era of Annales historiography and was influential throughout the 1960s and 1970s, especially for his work on the Mediterranean region in the era of Philip II of Spain . Braudel developed the idea, often associated with Annalistes, of different modes of historical time: l'histoire quasi immobile (the quasi motionless history) of historical geography, the history of social, political and economic structures ( la longue durée ), and

890-526: A "witness and narrator" to events and wanted as detailed a basis for his historiographical understanding as possible. The historian Rees Davies notes that although Bloch served in the war with "considerable distinction", it had come at the worst possible time both for his intellectual development and his study of medieval society. For the first time in his life, Bloch later wrote, he worked and lived alongside people he had never had close contact with before, such as shop workers and labourers, with whom he developed

1068-764: A Jewish identity will often celebrate most Jewish holidays in a secular manner. Humanists International endorses World Humanist Day (21 June), Darwin Day (12 February), Human Rights Day (10 December) and HumanLight (23 December) as official days of humanist celebration, though none are yet a public holiday. Humanist organisations typically organise events around these dates which draw attention to their programmes of activities. In many countries, humanist celebrants (officiants) perform celebrancy services for weddings, funerals, child namings , coming of age ceremonies , and other rituals. In countries like Scotland and Norway, these are extremely popular. In Scotland, more people have

1246-564: A belief in science and technology as the best way of understanding the world; evolution; and education as the essential method of building humane, free, and democratic societies. A general outline of Humanism is also set out in the Humanist Manifesto prepared by the American Humanist Association . In the 20th and 21st centuries, members of Humanist organizations have disagreed as to whether Humanism

1424-431: A captain in the fuel service , ( Service des essences) before the war ended. He was clearly, says Loyn, both a good and a brave soldier; he later wrote, "I know only one way to persuade a troop to brave danger: brave it yourself". While on front-line service, Bloch contracted severe arthritis which required him to retire regularly to the thermal baths of Aix-les-Bains for treatment. He later remembered very little of

1602-504: A career in professional French society. Bloch's later close collaborator, Lucien Febvre , visited the Bloch family at home in 1902; although the reason for Febvre's visit is now unknown, he later wrote of Bloch that "from this fleeting meeting, I have kept the memory of a slender adolescent with eyes brilliant with intelligence and timid cheeks—a little lost then in the radiance of his older brother, future doctor of great prestige". Bloch's biographer Katherine Stirling ascribed significance to

1780-738: A closer affinity with academic life in England than that of France. For example, in comparing the Bibliothèque Nationale with the British Museum , he said that A few hours work in the British [Museum] inspire the irresistible desire to build in the Square Louvois a vast pyre of all the B.N.'s regulations and to burn on it, in splendid auto-de-fé , Julian Cain [the director], his librarians and his staff...[and] also

1958-410: A few malodorous readers, if you like, and no doubt also the architect ... after which we could work and invite the foreigners to come and work". Isolated, each [historian] will understand only by halves, even within his own field of study, for the only true history, which can advance only through mutual aid, is universal history'. Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft During this period he supported

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2136-523: A further sub-category of the sub-category "No Religion", which typically includes atheist, rationalist and agnostic thought. In England, Wales 25% of people specify that they have 'No religion' up from 15% in 2001 and in Australia, around 30% of the population specifies "No Religion" in the national census. In the US, the decennial census does not inquire about religious affiliation or its lack; surveys report

2314-427: A great camaraderie . It was a completely different world to the one he was used to, being "a world where differences were settled not by words but by bullets". His experiences made him rethink his views on history, and influenced his subsequent approach to the world in general. He was particularly moved by the collective psychology he witnessed in the trenches . He later declared he knew of no better men than "the men of

2492-687: A habit of noting the different coloured smoke that different shells made — percussion bombs had black smoke, timed bombs were brown. He also remembered both the "friends killed at our side ... of the intoxication which had taken hold of us when we saw the enemy in flight". He also considered it to have been "four years of fighting idleness". Following the Armistice in November 1918 , Bloch was demobilised on 13 March 1919. "Must I say historical or indeed sociological? Let us more simply say, in order to avoid any discussion of method, human studies. Durkheim

2670-440: A humanist wedding than are married by any religious denomination, including Scotland's largest churches; over 20% of Scottish weddings are humanist. In Norway, over 20% of young people choose humanist coming-of-age ceremonies every year. The issue of whether and in what sense secular humanism might be considered a religion, and what the implications of this would be, has become the subject of legal maneuvering and political debate in

2848-457: A medievalist like Bloch should have been named to such a chair with so little previous preparation. In France it was only to be expected: no one else was better qualified". His first lecture was on the theme of never-ending history, a process, a never-to-be-finished thing. Davies says his years at the Sorbonne were to be "the most fruitful" of Bloch's career, and according to Epstein he was by now

3026-484: A necessity to establish a religion that was a dynamic force to meet the needs of the day. However, this "religion" did not profess a belief in any god. Since then two additional Manifestos were written to replace the first. In the Preface of Humanist Manifesto II, in 1973, the authors Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson assert that faith and knowledge are required for a hopeful vision for the future. Manifesto II references

3204-561: A new independent foundation, the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH), which Braudel directed from 1970 until his death. In 1970, the 6th Section and the Annales relocated to the FMSH building. FMSH set up elaborate international networks to spread the Annales gospel across Europe and the world. In 2013, it began publication of an English language edition, with all the articles translated. The scope of topics covered by

3382-429: A non-religious philosophy or approach to life. Generally speaking, all humanists, including religious humanists, reject deference to supernatural beliefs; promote the practical, methodological naturalism of science; and largely endorse the stance of metaphysical naturalism . The result is an approach to issues in a secular way. Humanism addresses ethics without reference to the supernatural as well, attesting that ethics

3560-881: A permit to work despite being Jewish. This was probably due to Bloch's pre-eminence in the field of history. He worked again at the University of Strasbourg, now relocated to Clermont-Ferrand , for one academic year before moving to Montpellier. In Clermont-Ferrand, his two older sons were involved with the Christian - conservative Gaullist Resistance organisation Combat . In November 1940 he received an offer of employment from The New School in New York , but he delayed his decision due to his reluctance to leave family members behind; it expired in July 1941 before he could obtain visas for his adult children. Montpellier, further south,

3738-501: A person's non-religious views, comes with no obligation to celebrate or revere specific days in the year as a religion would. As a result, individual humanists choose of their own accord whether to take part in prevailing national holidays where they live. For example, humanists in Europe and North America typically celebrate holidays, such as Christmas , but as secular holidays rather than Christian festivals. Other humanists choose to mark

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3916-414: A philosophy of utilitarianism , ethical naturalism , or evolutionary ethics , and some advocate a science of morality . Humanists International , founded by Julian Huxley and Jaap van Praag , is the world union of more than one hundred humanist, rationalist , irreligious, atheist , Bright , secular , Ethical Culture , and freethought organizations in more than 40 countries. The " Happy Human "

4094-431: A preconceived methodological perspective. Neither Bloch nor Febvre wanted to present a neutral facade. During the decade it was published it maintained a staunchly left-wing position. Henri Pirenne , a Belgian historian who wrote comparative history , closely supported the new journal. Before the war he had acted in an unofficial capacity as a conduit between French and German schools of historiography. Fernand Braudel —who

4272-502: A public position when France occupied the Ruhr in 1923 over Germany's perceived failure to pay war reparations . Bloch began working energetically, and later said that the most productive years of his life were spent at Strasbourg. In his teaching, his delivery was halting. His approach sometimes appeared cold and distant—caustic enough to be upsetting—but conversely, he could be also both charismatic and forceful. Durkheim died in 1917, but

4450-684: A review of Febvre's first book, Histoire de Franche-Comté . Bloch intended to turn his thesis into a book, but the First World War intervened. Both Marc and Louis Bloch volunteered for service in the French Army. Although the Dreyfus Affair had soured Bloch's views of the French Army, he later wrote that his criticisms were only of the officers; he "had respect only for the men". Bloch was one of over 800 ÉNS students who enlisted; 239 were to be killed in action . On 2 August 1914 he

4628-468: A rival centre, Newton Hall, in a courtyard off Fleet Street. The New York City version of the church was established by English immigrant Henry Edger . The American version of the "Church of Humanity" was largely modeled on the English church. Like the English version, it was not atheistic and had sermons and sacramental rites. At times the services included readings from conventional religious works like

4806-593: A section on religion and states traditional religion renders a disservice to humanity. Manifesto II recognizes the following groups to be part of their naturalistic philosophy: "scientific", "ethical", "democratic", "religious", and "Marxist" humanism. In 2002, the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration 2002 which represents the official defining statement of World Humanism. All member organisations of

4984-399: A single body of thought, and to promote the acceptance of all other schools of thought into historiography. As a result, the Annales often contained commentary on contemporary, rather than exclusively historical, events. Editing the journal led to Bloch forming close professional relationships with scholars in different fields across Europe. The Annales was the only academic journal to boast

5162-525: A study of long-term historical structures ( la longue durée ) over events and political transformations. Geography, material culture, and what later Annalistes called mentalités , or the psychology of the epoch, are also characteristic areas of study. The goal of the Annales was to undo the work of the Sorbonnistes, to turn French historians away from the narrowly political and diplomatic toward

5340-464: A thousand years, downplaying short-term events. Bloch's revolutionary charting of mentalities, or mentalités , resonated with scholars who were reading Freud and Proust . In the 1960s, Robert Mandrou and Georges Duby harmonized the concept of mentalité history with Fernand Braudel 's structures of historical time and linked mentalities with changing social conditions. A flood of mentalité studies based on these approaches appeared during

5518-432: A threat to the values set out in their sacred texts. In recent years, humanists such as Dwight Gilbert Jones and R. Joseph Hoffmann have decried the over-association of Humanism with affirmations of non-belief and atheism. Jones cites a lack of new ideas being presented or debated outside of secularism, while Hoffmann is unequivocal: "I regard the use of the term 'humanism' to mean secular humanism or atheism to be one of

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5696-529: A vehicle for the exchange of information to different areas of scholarship. By early 1939, war was known to be imminent. Bloch, in spite of his age, which automatically exempted him, had a reserve commission for the army holding the rank of captain. He had already been mobilised twice in false alarms. In August 1939, he and his wife Simonne intended to travel to the ICHS in Bucharest . In autumn 1939, just before

5874-446: A whole and literature (particularly theatrical plays) for France, England and Spain. His work in this specific field (based on the criss-crossing between literary criticism, bibliography, and sociocultural history) is connected to broader historiographical and methodological interests which deal with the relation between history and other disciplines: philosophy, sociology, anthropology. Chartier's typical undergraduate course focuses upon

6052-476: A year to be attacked by a ruthless, stronger force. Carole Fink On 24 August 1939, at the age of 53, Bloch was mobilised for a third time. He was responsible for the mobilisation of the French Army's massive motorised units which involved him undertaking such a detailed assessment of the French fuel supply that he later wrote he was able to "count petrol tins and ration every drop" of fuel he obtained. During

6230-429: Is Secular Humanism". So, this determination was left up to local school boards. The provision provoked a storm of controversy which within a year led Senator Hatch to propose, and Congress to pass, an amendment to delete from the statute all reference to secular humanism. While this episode did not dissuade fundamentalists from continuing to object to what they regarded as the "teaching of Secular Humanism", it did point out

6408-471: Is a human enterprise (see naturalistic ethics ). Accounts of humanism are also careful not to treat secular humanism analogously with religions, which implies a community who strictly attempt to adhere to the same obligations or beliefs. Holding a secular humanist philosophy does not prescribe a specific theory of morality or code of ethics. As stated by the Council for Secular Humanism, Secular Humanism

6586-544: Is a religion. They categorize themselves in one of three ways. Religious (or ethical) humanism , in the tradition of the earliest humanist organizations in the UK and US, attempts to fulfil the traditional social role of religion. Contemporary use of the word "religious" did not have the same connotations as its today. Secular humanism considers all forms of religion, including religious humanism, to be superseded. However, distinctions between "ethical" and "secular" humanists are for

6764-431: Is consistent with IHEU's general practice and recommendations for promoting a unified Humanist identity. To further promote Humanist identity, these words are also free of any adjectives, as recommended by prominent members of IHEU. Such usage is not universal among IHEU member organizations, though most of them do observe these conventions. Historical use of the term humanism (reflected in some current academic usage),

6942-530: Is not theistic , and it does not accept supernatural views of reality. To promote and unify "Humanist" identity, prominent members of the IHEU have endorsed the following statements on Humanist identity: According to the Council for Secular Humanism, within the United States, the term "secular humanism" describes a world view with the following elements and principles: A Secular Humanist Declaration

7120-476: Is not more religion but a richer notion of the nature of morality. Humanists Andrew Copson and Alice Roberts , in their casual introduction to humanism The Little Book of Humanism , propose that a distinctive aspect of humanist morality is its recognition that every moral situation is in some sense unique, and so potentially calls for different approach than the last (i.e. the ability to vacillate situationally between consequentialism and virtue ethics ). In

7298-588: Is not so much a specific morality as it is a method for the explanation and discovery of rational moral principles. Secular humanists affirm that with the present state of scientific knowledge, dogmatic belief in an absolutist moral or ethical system (e.g. Kantian, Islamic, Christian) is unreasonable. However, it affirms that individuals engaging in rational moral/ethical deliberations can discover some universal "objective standards". We are opposed to absolutist morality, yet we maintain that objective standards emerge, and ethical values and principles may be discovered, in

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7476-603: Is preserved. In 1934, Bloch was invited to speak at the London School of Economics . There he met Eileen Power , R. H. Tawney and Michael Postan , among others. While in London, he was asked to write a section of the Cambridge Economic History of Europe; at the same time, he also attempted to foster interest in the Annales among British historians. He later told Febvre in some ways he felt he had

7654-481: Is recognized as the official symbol of humanism internationally, used by secular humanist organizations in every part of the world. The term itself is not uncontested. "Secular humanism" is not a universally used phrase, and is most prevalent in the United States. Most member organisations of Humanists International, for example, use simply the term " humanism " to refer to this concept, with some commentators remarking that "'hyphenated humanism' easily becomes more about

7832-479: Is related to the writings of pre-Socratic philosophers . These writings were lost to European societies until Renaissance scholars rediscovered them through Muslim sources and translated them from Arabic into European languages. Thus the term humanist can mean a humanities scholar, as well as refer to The Enlightenment / Renaissance intellectuals, and those who have agreement with the pre-Socratics, as distinct from secular humanists. In 1851 George Holyoake coined

8010-458: Is typically portrayed as a vast evil conspiracy, deceitful and immoral, responsible for feminism, pornography, abortion, homosexuality, and New Age spirituality. In certain areas of the world, Humanism finds itself in conflict with religious fundamentalism, especially over the issue of the separation of church and state . Many Humanists see religions as superstitious, repressive and closed-minded, while religious fundamentalists may see Humanists as

8188-499: Is uncertainty because of the lack of universal definition throughout censuses. Humanism is a non-theistic belief system and, as such, it could be a sub-category of "Religion" only if that term is defined to mean "Religion and (any) belief system ". This is the case in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on freedom of religion and beliefs . Many national censuses contentiously define Humanism as

8366-476: The mentalités approach, replaced by the cultural and linguistic turn , which emphasizes the social history of cultural practices. The main scholarly outlet has been the journal Annales d'Histoire Economique et Sociale ("Annals of Economic and Social History"), founded in 1929 by Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, which broke radically with traditional historiography by insisting on the importance of taking all levels of society into consideration and emphasized

8544-468: The 46th Infantry Regiment based at Pithiviers from 1905 to 1906. By this time, changes were taking place in French academia. In Bloch's own speciality of history, attempts were being made at instilling a more scientific methodology. In other, newer departments such a sociology, efforts were made at establishing an independent identity. Bloch graduated in 1908 with degrees in both geography and history (Davies notes, given Bloch's later divergent interests,

8722-471: The Annales and Polish scholars continued until the early 1980s. The reciprocal influence between the French school and Polish historiography was particularly evident in studies on the Middle Ages and the early modern era studied by Braudel. In South America the Annales approach became popular. From the 1950s Federico Brito Figueroa was the founder of a new Venezuelan historiography based largely on

8900-466: The Annales focused attention on the synthesizing of historical patterns identified from social, economic, and cultural history, statistics, medical reports, family studies, and even psychoanalysis. The Annales was founded and edited by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre in 1929, while they were teaching at the University of Strasbourg and later in Paris. These authors, the former a medieval historian and

9078-418: The Annales over to the sole editorship of Febvre, who then changed the journal's name to Mélanges d'Histoire Sociale . Bloch was forced to write for it under the pseudonym Marc Fougères. The Annalist historian André Burguière suggests Febvre did not really understand the position Bloch, or any French Jew, was in. Already damaged by this disagreement, Bloch's and Febvre's relationship declined further when

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9256-486: The Annales school was Hugh Trevor-Roper . American, German, Indian, Russian and Japanese scholars generally ignored the school. The Americans developed their own form of "new social history" from entirely different roots. Both the American and the Annales historians picked up important family reconstitution techniques from French demographer Louis Henry . The Wageningen school centered on Bernard Slicher van Bath

9434-477: The Bible , translations of Ovid, Hamlet , Don Quixote , Montaigne's essays, Pepys's diary, Richardson's Pamela , and Franklin's autobiography. Secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy , belief system, or life stance that embraces human reason , logic , secular ethics , and philosophical naturalism , while specifically rejecting religious dogma , supernaturalism , and superstition as

9612-600: The Book of Isaiah . It was not as significant as the church in England, but did include several educated people. Another important precursor was the ethical movement of the 19th century. The South Place Ethical Society was founded in 1793 as the South Place Chapel on Finsbury Square , on the edge of the City of London , and in the early nineteenth century was known as "a radical gathering-place". At that point it

9790-486: The Center for Inquiry and in 2015 both ceased separate operations, becoming CFI programs) gave secular humanism an organisational identity within the United States; but no overall organisation involved currently uses a name featuring "secular humanism". However, many adherents of the approach reject the use of the word secular as obfuscating and confusing, and consider that the term secular humanism has been "demonized by

9968-549: The Collège de France , and Annenberg Visiting professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania . He frequently lectures and teaches in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. His work in Early Modern European History focuses on the history of education, the history of the book and the history of reading. Recently, he has been concerned with the relationship between written culture as

10146-482: The Conway Hall Ethical Society . Today Conway Hall explicitly identifies itself as a humanist organisation, albeit one primarily focused on concerts, events, and the maintenance of its humanist library and archives. It bills itself as "The landmark of London's independent intellectual, political and cultural life." In America, the ethical movement was propounded by Felix Adler , who established

10324-817: The Dreyfus affair . During the First World War , he served in the French Army and fought at the First Battle of the Marne and the Somme . After the war, he was awarded his doctorate in 1918 and became a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg. There, he formed an intellectual partnership with modern historian Lucien Febvre . Together they founded the Annales School and began publishing the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale in 1929. Bloch

10502-560: The Dreyfusard movement and his son agreed with the cause. Bloch was educated at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand for three years, where he was consistently head of his class and won prizes in French, history, Latin, and natural history. He passed his baccalauréat , in Letters and Philosophy, in July 1903, being graded trés bien (very good). The following year, he received a scholarship and undertook postgraduate study there for

10680-509: The First Battle of the Marne , Bloch's troop was responsible for the assault and capture of Florent before advancing on La Gruerie. Bloch led his troop with shouts of "Forward the 18th!" They suffered heavy casualties: 89 men were either missing or known to be dead. Bloch enjoyed the early days of the war; like most of his generation, he had expected a short but glorious conflict. Gustave Bloch remained in France, wishing to be close to his sons at

10858-606: The International Humanist and Ethical Union are required by bylaw 5.1 to accept the Minimum Statement on Humanism : Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It

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11036-585: The Nazi German authorities looted his apartment and stole his books; he was also persuaded by Febvre to relinquish his position on the editorial board of Annales . Bloch worked in Montpellier until November 1942 when Germany invaded Vichy France . He then joined the non-Communist section of the French Resistance and went on to play a leading role in its unified regional structures in Lyon . In 1944, he

11214-646: The New York Society for Ethical Culture in 1877. By 1886, similar societies had sprouted up in Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis. These societies all adopted the same statement of principles: In effect, the movement responded to the religious crisis of the time by replacing theology with unadulterated morality. It aimed to "disentangle moral ideas from religious doctrines , metaphysical systems, and ethical theories, and to make them an independent force in personal life and social relations." Adler

11392-528: The Phoney War . Involved in the Battle of Dunkirk and spending a brief time in Britain, he unsuccessfully attempted to secure passage to the United States. Back in France, where his ability to work was curtailed by new antisemitic regulations, he applied for and received one of the few permits available allowing Jews to continue working in the French university system. He had to leave Paris, and complained that

11570-547: The Popular Front politically. Although he did not believe it would do any good, he signed Alain's— Émile Chartier 's pseudonym—petition against Paul Boncour 's Militarisation laws in 1935. While he was opposed to the rise of European fascism , he also objected to attempting to counter the ideology through "demagogic appeals to the masses", as the Communist Party was doing. Febvre and Bloch were both firmly on

11748-482: The Sorbonne in 1936, and his chair in economic history was up for appointment. Bloch—"distancing himself from the encroaching threat of Nazi Germany"—applied and was approved for his position. This was a more demanding position than the one he had applied for at the college. Weber has suggested Bloch was appointed because unlike at the college, he had not come into conflict with many faculty members. Weber researched

11926-408: The University of Paris (1936 to 1939), and the University of Montpellier (1941 to 1944). Born in Lyon to an Alsatian Jewish family, Bloch was raised in Paris, where his father—the classical historian Gustave Bloch —worked at Sorbonne University . Bloch was educated at various Parisian lycées and the École Normale Supérieure , and from an early age was affected by the antisemitism of

12104-518: The functional , cohesive role that supernatural religion once served. Although Comte's religious movement was unsuccessful in France, the positivist philosophy of science itself played a major role in the proliferation of secular organizations in the 19th century in England. Richard Congreve visited Paris shortly after the French Revolution of 1848 where he met Auguste Comte and was heavily influenced by his positivist system. He founded

12282-479: The winter and summer solstices and the equinoxes . European humanists may often emphasise the fact that human beings have found reasons to celebrate at these times in the Northern Hemisphere for thousands of years before the arrival of Christianity. Humanists may also identify culturally with religious traditions and holidays celebrated in their family in the community. For example, humanists with

12460-433: The École pratique des hautes études , all based in Paris. A third generation was led by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1929–2023) and includes Jacques Revel, and Philippe Ariès (1914–1984), who joined the group in 1978. The third generation stressed history from the point of view of mentalities , or mentalités . The fourth generation of Annales historians, led by Roger Chartier (born 1945), clearly distanced itself from

12638-488: The 1960s and 1970s the term was embraced by some humanists who considered themselves anti-religious, as well as those who, although not critical of religion in its various guises, preferred a non-religious approach. The release in 1980 of A Secular Humanist Declaration by the newly formed Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, later the Council for Secular Humanism , which with CSICOP in 1991 jointly formed

12816-565: The 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, however, mentalité history had become interdisciplinary to the point of fragmentation, but still lacked a solid theoretical basis. While not explicitly rejecting mentalité history, younger historians increasingly turned to other approaches. Fernand Braudel became the leader of the second generation after 1945. He obtained funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York and founded

12994-473: The 6th Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, which was devoted to the study of history and the social sciences. It became an independent degree-granting institution in 1975 under the name École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Braudel's followers admired his use of the longue durée approach to stress slow, and often imperceptible effects of space, climate and technology on

13172-514: The Center for Historical Studies of El Colegio de México, the leading graduate studies institution of Latin America. British historians, apart from a few Marxists, were generally hostile. Academic historians decidedly sided with Geoffrey Elton 's The Practice of History against Edward Hallett Carr 's What Is History? One of the few British historians who were sympathetic towards the work of

13350-790: The Humanist life stance, such as the humanist subgroup of the Unitarian Universalist Association , do not belong to the IHEU. Although the European Humanist Federation is also separate from the IHEU, the two organisations work together and share an agreed protocol. Starting in the mid-20th century, religious fundamentalists and the religious right began using the term "secular humanism" in hostile fashion. Francis A. Schaeffer , an American theologian based in Switzerland, seizing upon

13528-686: The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) of the capitalization of the word Humanism , and the dropping of any adjective such as secular , is quite recent. The American Humanist Association began to adopt this view in 1973, and the IHEU formally endorsed the position in 1989. In 2002 the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration , which represents the official defining statement of World Humanism for Humanists. This declaration makes exclusive use of capitalized Humanist and Humanism , which

13706-798: The London Positivist Society in 1867, which attracted Frederic Harrison , Edward Spencer Beesly , Vernon Lushington , and James Cotter Morison amongst others. In 1878, the Society established the Church of Humanity under Congreve's direction. There they introduced sacraments of the Religion of Humanity and published a co-operative translation of Comte's Positive Polity. When Congreve repudiated their Paris co-religionists in 1878, Beesly, Harrison, Bridges, and others formed their own positivist society, with Beesly as president, and opened

13884-580: The Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II ) was his most influential. This vast panoramic view used ideas from other social sciences, employed effectively the technique of the longue durée, and downplayed the importance of specific events and individuals. It stressed geography but not mentalité . It was widely admired, but most historians did not try to replicate it and instead focused on their specialized monographs. The book dramatically raised

14062-636: The Nord and the Pas de Calais" with whom he had spent four years in close quarters. His few references to the French generals were sparse and sardonic. Apart from the Marne, Bloch fought at the battles of the Somme , the Argonne , and the final German assault on Paris . He survived the war, which he later described as having been an "honour" to have served through. He had, however, lost many friends and colleagues. Among

14240-567: The School also invited Bloch. He refused, possibly because of difficulties in obtaining visas : the US government would not grant visas to every member of his family. In May 1940, the German army forced the French to withdraw. Bloch fought at the Battle of Dunkirk in May–June 1940, being evacuated to England . Although he could have remained in Britain, he chose to return to France because his family

14418-479: The Third Republic". Marc had a brother, Louis Constant Alexandre, seven years his senior. The two were close, although Bloch later described Louis as being occasionally somewhat intimidating. The Bloch family lived at 72, Rue d'Alésia , in the 14th arrondissement of Paris . Gustave began teaching Marc history while he was still a boy, with a secular, rather than Jewish, education intended to prepare him for

14596-410: The U.S. and Britain, which reshaped economic, political, and demographic research. An attempt to require an Annales -written textbook for French schools was rejected by the government. By 1980 postmodern sensibilities undercut confidence in overarching metanarratives. As Jacques Revel notes, the success of the Annales school, especially its use of social structures as explanatory forces, contained

14774-424: The Union of Ethical Societies which had been founded by Stanton Coit in 1896. Humanists have put together various Humanist Manifestos , in attempts to unify the Humanist identity. The original signers of the first Humanist Manifesto of 1933, declared themselves to be religious humanists . Because, in their view, traditional religions were failing to meet the needs of their day, the signers of 1933 declared it

14952-679: The United States. The first reference to "secular humanism" in a US legal context was in 1961 , although church-state separation lawyer Leo Pfeffer had referred to it in his 1958 book, Creeds in Competition . The Education for Economic Security Act of 1984 included a section, Section 20 U.S.C.A. 4059, which initially read: "Grants under this subchapter ['Magnet School Assistance'] may not be used for consultants, for transportation or for any activity which does not augment academic improvement." With no public notice, Senator Orrin Hatch tacked onto

15130-406: The actions of human beings in the past. The Annales historians, after living through two world wars and incredible political upheavals in France, were deeply uncomfortable with the notion that multiple ruptures and discontinuities created history. They preferred to stress inertia and the longue durée. Special attention was paid to geography, climate, and demography as long-term factors. They believed

15308-490: The adjective than its referent". The meaning of the phrase secular humanism has evolved over time. The phrase has been used since at least the 1930s by Anglican priests , and in 1943, the then Archbishop of Canterbury , William Temple , was reported as warning that the "Christian tradition... was in danger of being undermined by a 'Secular Humanism' which hoped to retain Christian values without Christian faith." During

15486-625: The archives of the college in 1991 and discovered that Bloch had indicated an interest in working there as early as 1928, even though that would have meant him being appointed to the chair in numismatics rather than history. In a letter to the recruitment board written the same year, Bloch indicated that although he was not officially applying, he felt that "this kind of work (which he claimed to be alone in doing) deserves to have its place one day in our great foundation of free scientific research". H. Stuart Hughes says of Bloch's Sorbonne appointment: "In another country, it might have occasioned surprise that

15664-461: The assistance of other disciplines". His 1928 Oslo lecture, called "Towards a Comparative History of Europe", formed the basis of his next book, Les Caractères Originaux de l'Histoire Rurale Française . In the same year he founded the historical journal Annales with Febvre. One of its aims was to counteract the administrative school of history, which Davies says had "committed the arch error of emptying history of human element". As Bloch saw it, it

15842-399: The basis of morality and decision-making. Secular humanism posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or belief in a deity . It does not, however, assume that humans are either inherently good or evil , nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and

16020-507: The believers". Greg M. Epstein states that, "modern, organized Humanism began, in the minds of its founders, as nothing more nor less than a religion without a God". Many humanists address ethics from the point of view of ethical naturalism , and some support an actual science of morality . Secular humanist organizations are found in all parts of the world. Those who call themselves humanists are estimated to number between four and five million people worldwide in 31 countries, but there

16198-509: The body, and the heart), writing implements (including styluses, pens, pencils, needles, and brushes), and material forms (including scrolls, erasable tables, codices, broadsides and printed forms and books). Under the heading of "places", his class explores where texts were made, read, and listened to, including monasteries, schools and universities, offices of the state, the shops of merchants and booksellers, printing houses, theaters, libraries, studies, and closets. The texts for his course include

16376-450: The book, they quote from Kristen Bell 's advocacy of moral particularism as developed by Jonathan Dancy . Humanism is compatible with atheism , and by definition usually entails at least a form of weak or agnostic atheism , and agnosticism, but being atheist or agnostic does not automatically make one a humanist. Nevertheless, humanism is diametrically opposed to state atheism . According to Paul Kurtz , considered by some to be

16554-405: The burdensome tasks" themselves, asked Pirenne to become editor-in-chief of Annales to no avail. Pirenne remained a strong supporter, however, and had an article published in the first volume in 1929. He became close friends with both Bloch and Febvre. He was particularly influential on Bloch, who later said that Pirenne's approach should be the model for historians and that "at the time his country

16732-521: The closest of them, all killed in action, were: Maxime David (died 1914), Antoine-Jules Bianconi (died 1915) and Ernest Babut (died 1916). Bloch himself was wounded twice and decorated for courage, receiving the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur . He had joined as a non-commissioned officer , received an officer's commission after the Marne, and had been promoted to warrant officer and finally

16910-427: The collective nature of mentalities. Its contributors viewed events as less fundamental than the mental frameworks that shaped decisions and practices. However, informal successor as head of the school was Le Roy Ladurie. Multiple responses were attempted by the school. Scholars moved in multiple directions, covering in disconnected fashion the social, economic, and cultural history of different eras and different parts of

17088-658: The continuities of the deepest structures were central to history, beside which upheavals in institutions or the superstructure of social life were of little significance, for history lies beyond the reach of conscious actors, especially the will of revolutionaries. They rejected the Marxist idea that history should be used as a tool to foment and foster revolutions. In turn the Marxists called them conservatives. Braudel's first book, La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II (1949) ( The Mediterranean and

17266-562: The course of ethical deliberation. Many humanists adopt principles of the Golden Rule . Some believe that universal moral standards are required for the proper functioning of society. However, they believe such necessary universality can and should be achieved by developing a richer notion of morality through reason, experience and scientific inquiry rather than through faith in a supernatural realm or source. Fundamentalists correctly perceive that universal moral standards are required for

17444-516: The end of the 20th century, historians were making a more critical assessment of Bloch's abilities, influence, and legacy, arguing that there were flaws to his approach. Marc Bloch was born in Lyon on 6 July 1886, one of two children to Gustave and Sarah Bloch, née Ebstein. Bloch's family were Alsatian Jews : secular , liberal and loyal to the French Republic . They "struck a balance", says

17622-515: The era in which Bloch was born: the middle of the French Third Republic , so "after those who had founded it and before the generation that would aggressively challenge it". When Bloch was nine-years-old, the Dreyfus affair broke out in France. As the first major display of political antisemitism in Europe, it was probably a formative event of Bloch's youth, along with, more generally, the atmosphere of fin de siècle Paris. Bloch

17800-456: The ethical consequences of human decisions. Fundamental to the concept of secular humanism is the strongly held viewpoint that ideology—be it religious or political—must be thoroughly examined by each individual and not simply accepted or rejected on faith. Along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy . Many secular humanists derive their moral codes from

17978-645: The exclusion of the divine from most humanist writings, argued that rampant secular humanism would lead to moral relativism and ethical bankruptcy in his book How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976). Schaeffer portrayed secular humanism as pernicious and diabolical, and warned it would undermine the moral and spiritual tablet of America. His themes have been very widely repeated in Fundamentalist preaching in North America. Toumey (1993) found that secular humanism

18156-481: The extent to which he shifted his thinking on particular subjects. In 1930, both keen to make a move to Paris, Febvre and Bloch applied to the École pratique des hautes études for a position: both failed. Three years later Febvre was elected to the Collège de France . He moved to Paris, and in doing so, says Fink, became all the more aloof. This placed a strain on Bloch's and his relations, although they communicated regularly by letter and much of their correspondence

18334-428: The figure at roughly 13%. In the 2001 Canadian census, 16.5% of the populace reported having no religious affiliation. In the 2011 Scottish census, 37% stated they had no religion up from 28% in 2001. One of the largest Humanist organizations in the world (relative to population) is Norway 's Human-Etisk Forbund , which had over 86,000 members out of a population of around 4.6 million in 2013 – approximately 2% of

18512-759: The first few months of the war, called the Phoney War , he was stationed in Alsace, this time lacking the eager patriotism he had shown in the war. He also evacuated civilians to behind the Maginot Line and for a while he worked with British Intelligence . Bloch began but did not complete writing a history of France. At one point he expected to be invited to neutral Belgium to deliver a series of lectures in Liège , on Belgian neutrality . Some academics had escaped France for The New School in New York City, and

18690-632: The following year and again applied to the Fondation , this time successfully. Bloch researched the medieval Île-de-France in preparation for his thesis. This research was Bloch's first focus on rural history. His parents had moved house and now resided at the Avenue d'Orleans , not far from Bloch's quarters. Bloch's research at the Fondation—especially his research into the Capetian kings —laid

18868-644: The former had been forced to leave his library and papers in his Paris apartment following his move to Vichy. On account of limited space in Montpellier, he had attempted to have them transported to his country home in Fougères . Eventually the Nazis looted his apartment and removed the library in January 1942. Bloch held Febvre responsible, believing he could have done more to prevent it. Bloch had refused to donate

19046-463: The founder of the American secular humanist movement, one of the differences between Marxist–Leninist atheists and humanists is the latter's commitment to "human freedom and democracy" while stating that the militant atheism of the Soviet Union consistently violated basic human rights. Kurtz also stated that the "defense of religious liberty is as precious to the humanist as are the rights of

19224-412: The front. Except for two months in hospital followed by another three recuperating, he spent the war in the infantry; he joined as a sergeant and rose to become the head of his section . Bloch kept a war diary from his enlistment. Very detailed in the first few months, it rapidly became more general in its observations. However, says the historian Daniel Hochedez , Bloch was aware of his role as both

19402-401: The globe. By the time of the crisis the school was building a vast publishing and research network reaching across France, Europe, and the rest of the world. Influence spread out from Paris, but few new ideas came in. Much emphasis was given to quantitative data, seen as the key to unlocking all of social history. However, the Annales ignored the developments in quantitative studies underway in

19580-457: The greatest tragedies of twentieth century movementology, perpetrated by second-class minds and perpetuated by third-class polemicists and village atheists. The attempt to sever humanism from the religious and the spiritual was a flatfooted, largely American way of taking on the religious right. It lacked finesse, subtlety, and the European sense of history." Humanism, as a term which describes

19758-409: The groundwork for his career. He began by creating maps of the Paris area illustrating where serfdom had thrived and where it had not. He also investigated the nature of serfdom, the culture of which, he discovered, was founded almost completely on custom and practice. His studies of this period formed Bloch into a mature scholar and first brought him into contact with other disciplines whose relevance he

19936-515: The historian Carole Fink , between both "fierce Jacobin patriotism and the antinationalism of the left". His family had lived in Alsace for five generations under French rule. In 1871, France was forced to cede the region to Germany following its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War . The year after Bloch's birth, his father was appointed professor of Roman History at the Sorbonne, and the family moved to Paris—"the glittering capital of

20114-400: The historical events he found himself in, writing only that his memories were "a discontinuous series of images, vivid in themselves, but badly arranged, like a reel of motion picture film containing some large gaps and some reversals of certain scenes". Bloch later described the war, in a detached style, as having been a "gigantic social experience, of unbelievable richness". For example, he had

20292-407: The history of men and events, in the context of their structures. While authors such as Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie , Marc Ferro and Jacques Le Goff continue to carry the Annales banner, today the Annales approach has been less distinctive as more and more historians do work in cultural history , political history and economic history . Bloch's Les Rois thaumaturges (1924) looked at

20470-538: The history of mentalities. The Annales school systematically reached out to create an impact on other countries. Its success varied widely. The Annales approach was especially well received in Italy and Poland . Franciszek Bujak (1875–1953) and Jan Rutkowski (1886–1949), the founders of modern economic history in Poland and of the journal Roczniki Dziejów Spolecznych i Gospodarczych (1931– ), were attracted to

20648-454: The humanist movement by that name to the public in 1933, following work at the University of Chicago across the 1920s. The American Humanist Association was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit organization in 1943. The International Humanist and Ethical Union was founded in 1952, when a gathering of world Humanists met under the leadership of Sir Julian Huxley . The British Humanist Association took that name in 1967, but had developed from

20826-435: The ideas of the Annales School. Brito Figueroa carried his conception of the field to all levels of university study, emphasizing a systematic and scientific approach to history and placing it squarely in the social sciences. Spanish historiography was influenced by the "Annales School" starting in 1950 with Jaume Vicens Vives (1910–1960). In Mexico, exiled Republican intellectuals extended the Annales approach, particularly from

21004-527: The innovations of the Annales school. Rutkowski was in contact with Bloch and others, and published in the Annales . After the Communists took control in the 1940s Polish scholars were safer working on the Middle Ages and the early modern era rather than contemporary history. After the " Polish October " of 1956 the Sixth Section in Paris welcomed Polish historians and exchanges between the circle of

21182-423: The journal is vast and experimental—there is a search for total history and new approaches. The emphasis is on social history, and very long-term trends, often using quantification and paying special attention to geography and to the intellectual world view of common people, or "mentality" ( mentalité ). Little attention is paid to political, diplomatic, or military history, or to biographies of famous men. Instead

21360-468: The king's policies. The Annales historians did not try to replicate Braudel's vast geographical scope in La Méditerranée . Instead they focused on regions in France over long stretches of time. The most important was the study of The Peasants of Languedoc by Braudel's star pupil and successor Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. The regionalist tradition flourished especially in the 1960s and 1970s in

21538-568: The latter an early modernist, quickly became associated with the distinctive Annales approach, which combined geography, history, and the sociological approaches of the Année Sociologique (many members of which were their colleagues at Strasbourg) to produce an approach which rejected the predominant emphasis on politics, diplomacy and war of many 19th and early 20th-century historians as spearheaded by historians whom Febvre called Les Sorbonnistes. Instead, they pioneered an approach to

21716-635: The leadership of Harold Blackham , it renamed itself the British Humanist Association in 1967. It became the Humanists UK in 2017. In the 1930s, "humanism" was generally used in a religious sense by the Ethical movement in the United States, and not much favoured among the non-religious in Britain. Yet "it was from the Ethical movement that the non-religious philosophical sense of Humanism gradually emerged in Britain, and it

21894-455: The left, although with different emphases. Febvre, for example, was more militantly Marxist than Bloch, while the latter criticised both the pacifist left and corporate trade unionism. In 1934, Étienne Gilson sponsored Bloch's candidacy for a chair at the Collège de France. The college, says the historian Eugen Weber , was Bloch's "dream" appointment—although one never to be realised—as it

22072-622: The library to the University of Montpellier at the advice of the Vichy education minister, his friend Jérôme Carcopino , and later protested the loss to the newly appointed minister Abel Bonnard . Bloch's mother had recently died, and his wife was ill; he faced daily harassment. On 18 March 1941, Bloch made his will in Clermont-Ferrand. The Polish social historian Bronisław Geremek suggests that this document hints at Bloch in some way foreseeing his death, as he emphasised that nobody had

22250-518: The local leaders of Combat and organisers of the Comité Général d'Etudes (an underground Conseil d'État ), René Courtin and Pierre-Henri Teitgen . He also knew the sociologist and Communist Resistance member Georges Friedmann and the philosopher of mathematics Jean Cavaillès , a key Resistance figure who co-founded the left-wing Libération-sud in Clermont-Ferrand in December 1940,

22428-551: The long-standing folk belief that the king could cure scrofula by his thaumaturgic touch . The kings of France and England indeed regularly practiced the ritual. Bloch was not concerned with the effectiveness of the royal touch—he acted instead like an anthropologist in asking why people believed it and how it shaped relations between king and commoner. The book was highly influential in introducing comparative studies (in this case France and England), as well as long durations ("longue durée") studies spanning several centuries, even up to

22606-485: The making, remaking, dissemination, and reading of texts in early modern Europe and America. Under the heading of "practices", his class considers how readers read and marked up their books, forms of note-taking, and the interrelation between reading and writing from copying and translating to composing new texts. Under the heading of "materials", his class examines the relations between different kinds of writing surfaces (including stone, wax, parchment, paper, walls, textiles,

22784-440: The most part historical, and practically meaningless in the present day or to contemporary individuals who identify with humanism. Since the mid-20th century, the development of new concepts such as the " life stance " (which encompasses both humanist views and religious outlooks) has defused this conflict. Most humanist organisations identify with "humanism" without a pre-modifier (such a "secular" or "ethical") and assert humanism as

22962-604: The most significant French historian of his age. In 1936, Friedman says he considered using Marx in his teachings, with the intention of bringing "some fresh air" into the Sorbonne. The same year, Bloch and his family visited Venice , where they were chaperoned by the Italian historian Gino Luzzatto . During this period they were living in the Sèvres – Babylone area of Paris, next to the Hôtel Lutetia . By now, Annales

23140-447: The movement he began against the "smugness" that pervaded French intellectual thinking continued. Bloch had been greatly influenced by him, as Durkheim also considered the connections between historians and sociologists to be greater than their differences. Not only did he openly acknowledge Durkheim's influence, but Bloch "repeatedly seized any opportunity to reiterate" it, according to R. C. Rhodes. At Strasbourg, he again met Febvre, who

23318-503: The new vistas in social and economic history. Co-founder Marc Bloch (1886–1944) was a quintessential modernist who studied at the elite École Normale Supérieure, and in Germany, serving as a professor at the University of Strasbourg until he was called to the Sorbonne in Paris in 1936 as professor of economic history. Bloch's interests were highly interdisciplinary, influenced by the geography of Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918) and

23496-423: The next generation. To complicate the situation further, the country was in both political and economic crises , and the college's budget was slashed by 10%. No matter who filled it, this made another new chair financially unviable. By the end of the year, and with further retirements, the college had lost four professors: it could replace only one, and Bloch was not appointed. Bloch personally suspected his failure

23674-492: The originality of thought that Bloch would later be known for, and was not vastly different to what others had written on the subject. Following his graduation, he taught at two lycées , first in Montpelier, a minor university town of 66,000 inhabitants. With Bloch working over 16 hours a week on his classes, there was little time for him to work on his thesis. He also taught at the University of Amiens . While there, he wrote

23852-414: The outbreak of war, Bloch published the first volume of Feudal Society . Torn from normal behaviour and from normal expectations, suspended from history and from commonsense responses, members of a huge French army became separated for an indefinite period from their work and their loved ones. Sixty-seven divisions, lacking strong leadership, public support, and solid allies, waited almost three-quarters of

24030-463: The political and biographical history which up until that point was the norm, along with what the historian George Huppert has described as a "laborious cult of facts" that accompanied it. In 1920, with the opening of the University of Strasbourg , Bloch was appointed chargé de cours ( assistant lecturer ) of medieval history. Alsace-Lorraine had been returned to France with the Treaty of Versailles ;

24208-458: The population. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the worldwide umbrella organization for those adhering to the Humanist life stance. It represents the views of over three million Humanists organized in over 100 national organizations in 30 countries. Originally based in the Netherlands , the IHEU now operates from London. Some regional groups that adhere to variants of

24386-409: The position be redesignated the study of comparative history. Bloch, says Weber, enjoyed and welcomed new schools of thought and ideas, but mistakenly believed the college should do so also; the college did not. The contest between Bloch and Grenier was not just the struggle for one post between two historians; it was also a struggle to determine which path historiography within the college would take for

24564-511: The potential seizure or liquidation of Annales , Febvre insisted on continuing to publish it in Paris to ensure an international distribution and demanded that Bloch step down for the sake of preserving their project. Bloch initially refused what he called "an abdication" and proposed to move the journal to the unoccupied zone. In his desire to keep the journal afloat at all costs, Febvre went so far as to point out that Bloch had himself tried to rescue his Paris library. Bloch, forced to accede, turned

24742-408: The proper functioning of society. But they erroneously believe that God is the only possible source of such standards. Philosophers as diverse as Plato , Immanuel Kant , John Stuart Mill , George Edward Moore , and John Rawls have demonstrated that it is possible to have a universal morality without God. Contrary to what the fundamentalists would have us believe, then, what our society really needs

24920-580: The proposed exclusionary subsection the words "or for any course of instruction the substance of which is Secular Humanism". Implementation of this provision ran into practical problems because neither the Senator's staff, nor the Senate's Committee on Labor and Human Resources , nor the Department of Justice could propose a definition of what would constitute a "course of instruction the substance of which

25098-459: The religious right... All too often secular humanism is reduced to a sterile outlook consisting of little more than secularism slightly broadened by academic ethics. This kind of 'hyphenated humanism' easily becomes more about the adjective than its referent". Adherents of this view, including Humanists International and the American Humanist Association , consider that the unmodified but capitalized word Humanism should be used. The endorsement by

25276-472: The right to avoid fighting for their country. Annales School The school deals primarily with late medieval and early modern Europe (before the French Revolution ), with little interest in later topics. It has dominated French social history and heavily influenced historiography in Europe and Latin America. Prominent leaders include co-founders Lucien Febvre (1878–1956), Henri Hauser (1866–1946) and Marc Bloch (1886–1944). The second generation

25454-503: The same area of Strasbourg and became kindred spirits, often going on walking trips across the Vosges and other excursions. Bloch's fundamental views on the nature and purpose of the study of history were established by 1920. That same year he defended, and subsequently published, his thesis. It was not as extensive a work as had been intended due to the war. There was a provision in French further education for doctoral candidates for whom

25632-766: The seeds of its own downfall, for there is "no longer any implicit consensus on which to base the unity of the social, identified with the real". The Annales school kept its infrastructure, but lost its mentalités . The journal began in Strasbourg as Annales d'histoire économique et sociale ; it moved to Paris and kept the same name from 1929 to 1939. It was successively renamed Annales d'histoire sociale (1939–1942, 1945), Mélanges d'histoire sociale (1942–1944), Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations (1946–1994), and Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (1994– ). In 1962, Braudel and Gaston Berger used Ford Foundation money and government funds to create

25810-777: The significance of the two qualifications). He had a high respect for historical geography , then a speciality of French historiography, as practised by his tutor Vidal de la Blache whose Tableau de la géographie Bloch had studied at the ÉNS, and Lucien Gallois . Bloch applied unsuccessfully for a fellowship at the Fondation Thiers . As a result, he travelled to Germany in 1909 where he studied demography under Karl Bücher in Leipzig and religion under Adolf Harnack in Berlin; he did not, however, particularly socialise with fellow students while in Germany. He returned to France

25988-435: The sociology of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). His own ideas, especially those expressed in his masterworks, French Rural History ( Les caractères originaux de l'histoire rurale française , 1931) and Feudal Society , were incorporated by the second-generation Annalistes, led by Fernand Braudel . Georges Duby , a leader of the school, wrote that the history he taught: The Annalistes, especially Lucien Febvre , advocated

26166-414: The status of the region was a contentious political issue in Strasbourg, its capital, which had a large German population. Bloch, however, refused to take either side in the debate; indeed, he appears to have avoided politics entirely. Under Wilhelmine Germany , Strasbourg had rivalled Berlin as a centre for intellectual advancement, and the University of Strasbourg possessed the largest academic library in

26344-617: The term "secularism" to describe "a form of opinion which concerns itself only with questions, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this life". The modern secular movement coalesced around Holyoake, Charles Bradlaugh and their intellectual circle. The first secular society, the Leicester Secular Society , dates from 1851. Similar regional societies came together to form the National Secular Society in 1866. Holyoake's secularism

26522-507: The war had interrupted their research to submit only a small portion of the full-length thesis usually required. It sufficed, however, to demonstrate his credentials as a medievalist in the eyes of his contemporaries. He began publishing articles in Henri Berr 's Revue de Synthèse Historique . Bloch also published his first major work, Les Rois thaumaturges , which he later described as " ce gros enfant " (this big child). In 1928, Bloch

26700-425: The work of Pierre Goubert in 1960 on Beauvais and René Baehrel on Basse-Provence. Annales historians in the 1970s and 1980s turned to urban regions, including Pierre Deyon (Amiens), Maurice Garden (Lyon), Jean-Pierre Bardet (Rouen), Georges Freche (Toulouse), Gregory Hanlon (Agen and Layrac ), and Jean-Claude Perrot (Caen). By the 1970s the shift was underway from the earlier economic history to cultural history and

26878-738: The world. Thus, says Stephan R. Epstein of the London School of Economics , "Bloch's unrivalled knowledge of the European Middle Ages was ... built on and around the French University of Strasbourg's inherited German treasures". Bloch also taught French to the few German students who were still at the Centre d'Études Germaniques at the University of Mainz during the Occupation of the Rhineland . He refrained from taking

27056-503: The worldwide profile of the Annales School. In 1951, historian Bernard Bailyn published a critique of La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II , which he framed as dichotomizing politics and society. Before Annales , French history supposedly happened in Paris. Febvre broke decisively with this paradigm in 1912, with his sweeping doctoral thesis on Philippe II et la Franche-Comté . The geography and social structure of this region overwhelmed and shaped

27234-477: The École normale supérieure (ÉNS) (where his father had been appointed maître de conferences in 1887). His father had been nicknamed le Méga by his students at the ÉNS and the moniker Microméga was bestowed upon Bloch. Here he was taught history by Christian Pfister and Charles Seignobos , who led a relatively new school of historical thought which saw history as broad themes punctuated by tumultuous events. Another important influence on Bloch from this period

27412-455: Was 11 when Émile Zola published J'Accuse…! , his indictment of the French establishment's antisemitism and corruption. Bloch was greatly affected by the Dreyfus affair, but even more affected was nineteenth-century France generally, and his father's employer, the École Normale Supérieure, saw existing divides in French society reinforced in every debate. Gustave Bloch was closely involved in

27590-485: Was a Unitarian chapel, and that movement, like Quakers, supported female equality. Under the leadership of Reverend William Johnson Fox , it lent its pulpit to activists such as Anna Wheeler , one of the first women to campaign for feminism at public meetings in England, who spoke in 1829 on "rights of women". In later decades, the chapel changed its name to the South Place Ethical Society, now

27768-481: Was a modernist in his historiographical approach, and repeatedly emphasised the importance of a multidisciplinary engagement towards history, particularly blending his research with that on geography , sociology and economics, which was his subject when he was offered a post at the University of Paris in 1936. During the Second World War Bloch volunteered for service, and was a logistician during

27946-613: Was also particularly critical of the religious emphasis on creed, believing it to be the source of sectarian bigotry. He therefore attempted to provide a universal fellowship devoid of ritual and ceremony, for those who would otherwise be divided by creeds. Although the organisation was overwhelmingly made up of (and entirely led by) atheists, and were many of the same people as in the secular movement, Ethical organisations at that time publicly avoided debate about religious beliefs, publicly advocating neither atheism nor theism , agnosticism nor deism , instead stressing "deed without creed" and

28124-650: Was arrested in Narbonne in September 1942 and escaped from Montpellier prison in December 1942. It was during these bitter years of defeat, of personal recrimination, of insecurity that he wrote both the uncompromisingly condemnatory pages of Strange Defeat and the beautifully serene passages of The Historian's Craft . R. R. Davies Bloch's professional relationship with Febvre was also under strain. The Nazis wanted French editorial boards to be stripped of Jews in accordance with German racial policies . Facing

28302-656: Was assigned to the 272nd Reserve Regiment. Within eight days he was stationed on the Belgian border where he fought in the Battle of the Meuse later that month. His regiment took part in the general retreat on the 25th, and the following day they were in Barricourt , in the Argonne . The march westward continued towards the river Marne —with a temporary recuperative halt in Termes —which they reached in early September. During

28480-425: Was being published six times a year to keep on top of current affairs, however, its "outlook was gloomy". In 1938, the publishers withdrew support and, experiencing financial hardship, the journal moved to cheaper offices, raised its prices, and returned to publishing quarterly. Febvre increasingly opposed the direction Bloch wanted to take the journal. Febvre wanted it to be a "journal of ideas", whereas Bloch saw it as

28658-472: Was beneficial to his wife's declining health. The dean of faculty at Montpellier was an antisemite, who also disliked Bloch for having once given him a poor review . Bloch rejected the Vichy propaganda notion of returning to traditional French values, arguing that "the idyllic, docile peasant life of the French right had never existed". In Montpellier, he had to be escorted to class for protection from militant right-wing students. His university contacts included

28836-569: Was captured by the Gestapo in Lyon and murdered in a summary execution after the Allied invasion of Normandy . Several works—including influential studies like The Historian's Craft and Strange Defeat —were published posthumously. His historical studies and his death as a member of the Resistance together made Bloch highly regarded by generations of post-war French historians; he came to be called "the greatest historian of all time". By

29014-601: Was due to antisemitism and Jewish quotas . At the time, Febvre blamed it on a distrust of Bloch's approach to scholarship by the academic establishment, although Epstein has argued that this could not have been an over-riding fear as Bloch's next appointment indicated. We sometimes clashed...so close to each other and yet so different. We threw our 'bad character' in each other's faces, after which we found ourselves more united than ever in our common hatred of bad history, of bad historians—and of bad Frenchmen who were also bad Europeans. Lucien Febvre Henri Hauser retired from

29192-579: Was fighting beside mine for justice and civilisation, wrote in captivity a history of Europe". The three men kept up a regular correspondence until Pirenne's death in 1935. In 1923, Bloch attended the inaugural meeting of the International Congress on Historical Studies (ICHS) in Brussels , which was opened by Pirenne. Bloch was a prolific reviewer for Annales , and during the 1920s and 1930s he contributed over 700 reviews. These included criticisms of specific works, but more generally, represented his own fluid thinking during this period. The reviews demonstrate

29370-479: Was from the convergence of the Ethical and Rationalist movements that this sense of Humanism eventually prevailed throughout the Freethought movement". As an organised movement in its own right, humanism emerged from vibrant non-religious movements of the 18th and 19th centuries such as the Owenites, Ethical Culture, the freethinkers, secularists, and positivists, as well as a few non-religious radical Unitarian congregations. The first Humanist Manifesto announced

29548-445: Was himself to become an important member of the Annales School after the Second World War—later described the journal's management as being a chief executive officer—Bloch—with a minister of foreign affairs—Febvre. Utilizing comparative methodology allowed Bloch to discover instances of uniqueness within aspects of society, and he advocated it as a new kind of history. According to Bryce Lyon, Braudel and Febvre, "promising to perform all

29726-453: Was his duty to correct that tendency. Both Bloch and Febvre were keen to refocus French historical scholarship on social rather than political history and to promote the use of sociological techniques. The journal avoided narrative history almost completely. The inaugural issue of the Annales stated the editors' basic aims: to counteract the arbitrary and artificial division of history into periods, to re-unite history and social science as

29904-626: Was his father's contemporary, the sociologist Émile Durkheim , who pre-figured Bloch's own later emphasis on cross-disciplinary research. The same year, Bloch visited England; he later recalled being struck more by the number of homeless people on the Victoria Embankment than the new Entente Cordiale relationship between the two countries. The Dreyfus affair had soured Bloch's views of the French Army , and he considered it laden with "snobbery, anti-semitism and anti-republicanism". National service had been made compulsory for all French adult males in 1905, with an enlistment term of two years. Bloch joined

30082-444: Was invited to lecture at the Institute for the Comparative Study of Civilizations in Oslo. Here he first expounded publicly his theories on total, comparative history: "it was a compelling plea for breaking out of national barriers that circumscribed historical research, for jumping out of geographical frameworks, for escaping from a world of artificiality, for making both horizontal and vertical comparisons of societies, and for enlisting

30260-414: Was issued in 1980 by the Council for Secular Humanism's predecessor, CODESH. It lays out ten ideals: Free inquiry as opposed to censorship and imposition of belief; separation of church and state; the ideal of freedom from religious control and from jingoistic government control; ethics based on critical intelligence rather than that deduced from religious belief; moral education; religious skepticism; reason;

30438-412: Was led by Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) and included Georges Duby (1919–1996), Pierre Goubert (1915–2012), Robert Mandrou (1921–1984), Pierre Chaunu (1923–2009), Jacques Le Goff (1924–2014), and Ernest Labrousse (1895–1988). Institutionally it is based on the Annales journal, the SEVPEN publishing house, the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH), and especially the 6th Section of

30616-459: Was no longer there, but the team he had grouped around him survived him...and the spirit which animates it remains the same". Marc Bloch, review of L'Année Sociologique , 1923–1925 The war was fundamental in re-arranging Bloch's approach to history, although he never acknowledged it as a turning point. In the years following the war, a disillusioned Bloch rejected the ideas and the traditions that had formed his scholarly training. He rejected

30794-400: Was now a leading historian of the 16th century. Modern and medieval seminars were adjacent to each other at Strasbourg, and attendance often overlapped. Their meeting has been called a "germinal event for 20th-century historiography", and they were to work closely together for the rest of Bloch's life. Febvre was some years older than Bloch and was probably a great influence on him. They lived in

30972-431: Was one of the few (possibly the only) institutions in France where personal research was central to lecturing. Camille Jullian had died the previous year, and his position was now available. While he had lived, Julian had wished for his chair to go to one of his students, Albert Grenier , and after his death, his colleagues generally agreed with him. However, Gilson proposed that not only should Bloch be appointed, but that

31150-434: Was still there. To Bloch, France collapsed because her generals failed to capitalise on the best qualities humanity possessed—character and intelligence—because of their own "sluggish and intractable" progress since the First World War. Two-thirds of France were occupied by Germany. Bloch was demobilised soon after Philippe Pétain 's government signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940 forming Vichy France . Bloch received

31328-475: Was strongly influenced by Auguste Comte , the founder of positivism and of modern sociology . Comte believed human history would progress in a " law of three stages " from a theological phase, to the " metaphysical ", toward a fully rational "positivist" society. In later life, Comte had attempted to introduce a " religion of humanity " in light of growing anti-religious sentiment and social malaise in revolutionary France . This religion would necessarily fulfil

31506-420: Was to emphasise for most of his career. Serfdom as a topic was so broad that he touched on commerce, currency, popular religion, the nobility, as well as art, architecture, and literature. His doctoral thesis —a study of 10th-century French serfdom—was titled Rois et Serfs, un Chapitre d'Histoire Capétienne . Although it helped mould Bloch's ideas for the future, it did not, says Bryce Loyn, give any indication of

31684-449: Was viewed internationally as a Dutch counterpart of the Annales school, although Slicher van Bath himself vehemently rejected the idea of a quantitative "school" of historiography. Has been cited as a key influence in the development of World Systems Theory by sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein . The current leader is Roger Chartier , who is Directeur d'Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Professeur in

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