Henri Pirenne, Historian

Sarah Keymeulen is a researcher at the Ghent University. Jo Tollebeek is professor of Cultural History at KU Leuven.

• CONTENTS9 Milestones13 The formative years, 1862-189013 Background and childhood15 Training in Belgium and abroad26 A young medievalist on new paths29 Paterfamilias31 The productive years, 1890-191431 The pre-war oeuvre38 An enviable status43 The First World War as turning-point, 1914-192243 Broken relationships44 Orchestrated resistance46 Exile in Germany56 The new Pirenne73 An eminent historian, 1922-193573 The Nouvelle Histoire76 The American connection84 Mahomet et Charlemagne92 The completion of the Histoire de Belgique97 Nachleben97 Death of an historian103 Posthumous publications108 Far-reaching influence113 Literature115 The Pirenne Archive at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)117 Origin of the illustrations123 Acknowledgements

This small, elegant and insightful book makes it easy to appreciate the integral man and his scholarship. It draws heavily on the Pirenne archives at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Ghent University Library, both of which have recently had exhibitions focused on material in their holdings.[6] In about 50 pages of text (pictures, reproductions of documents and diary pages, chronologies and bibliographies take up the greater part of the book's 120 pages) it locates Pirenne in his time and place, in European events and in the world of academic historians in Europe, especially in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The influences on his ideas, methods of research and narrative style are suggested through his experiences and connections, rather than textual analysis.Martin O. Heisler, University of Maryland, Medievally Speaking