The city of Strasbourg, part of the Alsace region, is located on the border of Germany and France.
The historical changes here are very complicated. It originally belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, was later incorporated into France, and then occupied by Germany. After World War I, it was taken back by France.
Friends with good memories may still remember the Treaty of Versailles in middle school history textbooks. One of the clauses is that Germany ceded the Alsace-Lorraine region to France.
Lucien Fevere was a professor at the University of Strasbourg at this time.
He is currently preparing to launch a magazine called "Yearbook of Economic and Social History." From a future perspective, this magazine created the Yearbook School, changed the face of the world's history community, and made contributions to the development of modern history.
Outstanding contribution.
Okay, it sounds awesome, but at this time Lucien Favre is still "non-mainstream".
In the European historical circles in the 1920s, the mainstream faction was "new history" positivist historiography.
This school of history emerged in the late 19th century, when natural science made explosive progress and scientists achieved important results one after another. The entire Western society has fallen into the infinite worship of science, and historians are no exception.
As a result, some people proposed to apply the methods of natural science to historical research. Through various psychological analyzes and attention to the organic connections between things, they can be used to reveal the laws hidden behind historical activities.
To put it more bluntly, all history is divided into three major elements: "geographical time", "social time" and "personal time". Historians use natural science thinking to summarize a set of "scientific formulas" and study
When it comes to history, just fit it into the "formula".
Positivist historical thought has its advanced nature, which promotes traditional historical materials to eliminate falsehoods while retaining truth, and makes historical research more rigorous. However, it also has great limitations. If historians continue to do this, history will move closer to the natural sciences and ignore the uniqueness of historical research.
Since World War I, the entire European intellectual, historical, and literary circles have been filled with decadence, confusion, and rebellion, which has given rise to a variety of new schools.
The voices questioning positivist historiography are getting louder and louder, but they cannot yet overthrow it. Lucien Favre is an active member among the opponents.
"Have you not received all the magazine manuscripts yet?" Mark Bloch walked into the office and asked.
Lucien Favre smiled and said: "There is another copy in the mail. It may be received in the next few days."
Mark Bloch said distressedly: "I contacted five publishing houses and publishers, but no one was willing to help publish our magazine."
"It's normal," Lucien Fevere said metaphorically, "positivist historiography is a windmill, and we are like Don Quixote who overestimates his own capabilities, and it is difficult to get the attention of the mainstream group."
"What should we do?" asked Mark Bloch.
Lucien Favre said: "Go to Paris. I have dealt with young Louis from Hachette publishing house. Maybe he can help publish the magazine."
By the weekend, the two of them compiled the contents of the first issue of the magazine and headed to Paris together with the rough-printed sample.
…
The 1920s were called the "Crazy 20s" by the Western world.
Especially in France, the bad situation of World War I has ended, and the economy fully recovered in the 1920s, showing a dazzling prosperity.
But the psychological trauma caused by the war is engraved in everyone's bones. So the rich enjoy themselves as much as they can, and artists, thinkers and writers rebel against tradition and create chaos.
new genre.
The poor did not bother to start a revolution. Although their lives were more difficult than before, the aftermath of the disaster made people cherish life more. Moreover, by the end of the 1920s, the overall recovery of the social economy also gave the people at the bottom a little hope.
This seems to be a prosperous time!
Lucien Favre and Mark Bloch were walking on the streets of Paris, looking at the busy and prosperous scene, and their moods became much better.
Since Hachette Publishing House was in the western suburbs of Paris, it was too late to catch up, so they simply stayed in a hotel.
It was already mid-afternoon, and Favre was bored, so he suggested going to a bookstore, and Bloch readily agreed.
Like the situation in the United States, the French publishing industry was also in a prosperous period in the 1920s, with nearly 20,000 books published every year.
Since it was the weekend, there were especially many people visiting the bookstore.
Favre went straight to the literature and history bookshelf. As soon as he got closer, he saw a whole row of new books: "The Rise of the Great Powers", "Guns, Germs and Steel", "Chrysanthemum and the Knife", "The Goddess", "The Dog Officer"
.
A total of five works, except for martial arts novels, almost all of Zhou Hexuan's works are here.
The French guys are having so much fun that they are not afraid of not being able to sell it!
Feiffer was so impressed by Zhou Hexuan that he seriously recommended some fragments of "The Rise of the Great Powers" to his students.
As soon as he saw the author's name on the spine of the book, Feiffer immediately took it off in surprise.
On the title page of "The Rise of Great Powers", there is an introduction to the author written by Le Goff, a reporter from "Le Figaro", and even a half-length photo of Zhou Hexuan: Zhou Hexuan, Chinese, born in 1898. He lived in Southeast Asia during his childhood.
He studied English with American missionaries. He traveled to the United States as a boy and attended many universities. From 1916 to 1926, he traveled around the world, visiting libraries and archives in various countries to search for information. He is now the president of Peking University, an institution of higher learning in China. With his outstanding
His historical and literary talents are famous in the Far East.
"Oh, God! He is only 18 years old. He is so young." Favre couldn't help but exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" Bloch came over and asked.
Favre pointed to the row of works on the bookshelf and said with a smile: "The works of China Zhou."
"Which Chinese writer wrote The Rise of the Great Powers?" Bloch said in surprise.
The fragments of "The Rise of the Great Powers" have long been circulated in Europe, and scholars who study history have heard of it more or less. The views on history expressed in this book coincide with those of Favre and Bloch.
The Annales School founded by the two advocates the integration of various sciences such as geography, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and linguistics, and brings these together to study history.
Isn't this exactly the historical narrative method of "The Rise of Great Powers"?
Therefore, decades later, the world history community generally believed that before Favre and Bloch founded the Annales School, the Annales School had already produced a masterpiece, namely "The Rise of the Great Powers".
For this reason, Zhou Hexuan is called the "pioneer of the Almanac School" and the "founder of the Almanac School".
But there are also different views. Many historians believe that "The Rise of the Great Powers" is not a work of the Annales School, but a mature work of modern history. It is a work that completely transcends the times.
Favre and Bloch only flipped through a few pages, then each went to check out holding a set of Zhou Hexuan's works.
Favre even decided to modify the content of the first issue of the magazine and add a review article on "The Rise of the Great Powers". Their main purpose in founding the magazine was to overthrow the current popular positivist historiography, and Zhou Hexuan's "The Rise of the Great Powers" is among the most powerful