Halévy, Elie (1870–1937)

Abstract

Elie Halévy was one of the foremost historians of 19th-century English thought and politics. He was born at Etretat, France, and educated in Paris at the Lycée Condorcet and the Ecole Normale. His early training was philosophical, and he remained throughout his life associated with the Revue de métaphysique et de morale. He passed his agrégation in 1892, and was invited to lecture at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques on the evolution of political ideas in England; this was to establish the course of his career. In 1900–1903 he published his first major work. La formation du radicalisme philosophique en Angleterre, a study tracing the development of the utilitarian doctrine from 1776 to 1832. As an offshoot of this project he also published a short study, Thomas Hodgskin (1903), which presents Hodgskin as a precursor of Marx. Halévy’s major historical writings were the volumes of his Histoire du peuple anglais au XIXe siècle (1912–1932), most notably vol. I, England in 1815, and vol. V, Imperialism and the Rise of Labour.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman