13 Facts About Lucien Febvre

Lucien Febvre was the initial editor of the Encyclopedie francaise together with Anatole de Monzie.

Lucien Febvre was born and brought up in Nancy, in northeastern France.

Lucien Febvre's father was a philologist, who introduced Febvre to the study of ancient texts and languages, which significantly influenced Febvre's way of thinking.

At the age of twenty, Febvre went to Paris to enroll in the Ecole Normale Superieure.

Lucien Febvre took up a position at the University of Strasbourg in 1919 when the province was returned to France.

The time Lucien Febvre spent in Paris played an enormous role in reshaping his outlook on the world.

Lucien Febvre embraced 20th century modernism to the extent that he later claimed to have become "untuned" from the old world and the old ways of thinking.

Lucien Febvre reconstructed the life of villagers and town dwellers in a small traditional province in France by contextualizing historical events in terms of the geography and environment of the times.

Lucien Febvre refused to see people as bound by forces beyond their control.

Lucien Febvre believed that people needed to be educated in order to avoid the dangers of the old ways of thinking.

In 1933 Lucien Febvre was appointed to a chair at the College de France.

Lucien Febvre believed that it was worth making concessions to keep the journal afloat and to keep France's intellectual life alive.

Lucien Febvre is honoured in street names in Besancon and Strasbourg.