Pierre Nora, historian who shaped intellectual life in France, dies at 93

LeMonde

4 days ago

Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris's Left Bank, was his domain. Living at the corner of Place de Furstenberg, Pierre Nora was a few steps away from the Quai Conti, home to the Académie Française, of which he was a member, and from the headquarters of the prestigious Gallimard publishing house, where he oversaw collections in the social sciences and humanities. From this triangle, the founder of the journal Le Débat was a central figure in shaping intellectual life and debates in France. His elegant silhouette will no longer be seen crisscrossing these streets. Nora died on Monday, June 2, in Paris, at the age of 93, his family told Agence France-Presse. He had become an essential "public historian" whom journalists called upon for analysis of the evolution of national sentiment or the meaning of commemorations and national symbols.
His name will remain above all associated with one of the most innovative historiographical undertakings of the past 40 years: Les Lieux de Mémoire, translated as Realms of Memory and Rethinking France, a monumental seven-volume project published between 1984 and 1993. As its director, he brought together 130 historians, including Raoul Girardet, Maurice Agulhon, Antoine Prost and Pascal Ory, notably to decipher the symbols of the French Republic (the tricolor flag, the Republican calendar, La Marseillaise) and its monuments (the Panthéon, town halls, war memorials).