Présentation

In both my teaching and scholarship, my main focus has been on Early Modern Europe, with a research interest in France. And within this field I have largely hewed to one central theme: the formation of the centralized state, which arguably was most and earliest apparent in France, along with the cultural and social aspects of this particular political development. This reflects an interest, not only in Europe from the Renaissance to the Revolution, but also in the political and cultural history of other regions and other times insofar as the emergence of the nation-state is clearly one of the main themes of global history in the last half millennium. My research has been a continuous exploration of the various ramifications of political centralization, which I analyzed in the most sustained fashion in my first book, Public Life in Toulouse, 1463-1789; and which I subsequently examined in relationship to forms of public display in The Ceremonial City. Currently, I am completing a book on how intellectuals and writers both served and resisted the emerging political culture of “absolutism” during the crucial period of its development, the early seventeenth century.

My teaching largely reflects these interests, as well as a desire to convey to students some of the most exciting aspects of Early Modern European History—a field that has attracted some of the best and most imaginative historians of our time. I routinely offer courses on “The Old Regime and the French Revolution,” “Religion, Magic and Witchcraft,” “Culture and Society in Early Modern Europe,” and “Historical Methodology.” My teaching is limited to half-time because I currently serve as Editor of the American Historical Review.

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Conférences

Dans le cadre du séminaire du Grihl, Ecritures du passé : histoire et littérature
Contre la République des Lettres : sociabilité intellectuelle et littéraire à Paris à l’époque de Richelieu
Mardi 23 février de 17h-20h
Centre Censier (salle 410) - 13, rue de Santeuil - 75005 Paris

Intervention dans le cadre de la journée d’étude organisée par le Grihl , De l’amendable à
l’impubliable : les pratiques du refus par les revues de sciences humaines et sociales
Mercredi 9 mars de 13h-17h
EHESS (salle 8) - 105, boulevard Raspail - 75006 Paris

Dans le cadre du séminaire de Fanny Cosandey, Élie Haddad,  Mathieu Marraud et  Robert Descimon, Société et pouvoir en France à l’époque moderne
Henri II de Montmorency : mécène et rebelle
Vendredi 11 mars de 9h à 11h
EHESS (salle 8) - 105, boulevard Raspail - 75006 Paris

Dans le cadre du séminaire de Dinah Ribard, Histoire et récits du travail
Otium et réforme de la langue à l’époque de Richelieu
Mardi 22 mars de 11h-13h
EHESS (salle 5) - 105, boulevard Raspail - 75006 Paris
 

Accueil et séjour

• invité de Christian Jouhaud

• 1 mois (février-mars 2016)