NATIONAL HISTORY AND LIBERALISM: Thierry

Abstract

[Augustin Thierry (1795–1856) epitomized the romantic historiography of the first half of the nineteenth century. After brief periods as secretary to Saint-Simon and as freelance journalist, Thierry turned to history, publishing his first historical writings as letters in a newspaper. Drawn to his subject by a passion for liberty and guided by a fine sense of detail and development, he became, next to Guizot, the leading French historian of the time. His narrative style reflected the influence of his two masters, Chateaubriand and Sir Walter Scott. In 1826 he published the History of the Norman Conquest of England and in 1840 the Récits des Temps Mérovingiens. In these works he introduced his major historical interests: the racial antagonisms between conqueror and conquered, the rise of the communes in France, and the growth of the Third Estate. Although he had become blind in 1826, he was appointed by Guizot to direct the projected Récueil des Monuments Inédits de L’Histoire du Tiers Etat, and before his death he completed his own work on the history of the Third Estate in France.