“One of the most rewarding decisions of my life has surely been to enter archiving.” With these words, uttered during a France Inter interview, the contemporary French historian, Arlette Farge, sums up her passion for the field to which she has dedicated over 50 years of her life.
Born in Charleville in 1941, she was destined for a career as a juvenile court judge until she chose instead to devote herself to the history of law and institutions. While completing her thesis in the United States, she witnessed the struggle of black students for civil rights, which prompted her to study the poorest sectors of society.
On her return to France, she prepared a doctoral thesis on Food Theft in 18th Century Paris (Le vol d’aliment à Paris au XVIIIe siècle) which she defended in 1974 under the supervision of Robert Mandrou. A historian himself, Mandrou was a disciple of Lucien Febvre and a pioneer in the history of mentalities, an approach to cultural history which studies how historical people thought about, interacted with, and classified the world around them. It was this work that would plunge her into the world of archiving.
Judicial archives, material for a life’s work
On France Inter, she recounts the day in 1970 when her thesis supervisor accompanied her to the National Archives in Paris for the first time and introduced her to the judicial archives of the Age of Enlightenment. These archives would become her source material for the next 50 years, the foundation of her work which has centred on the forgotten lives that discreetly form a part of French history.
The author of numerous books, it was, The Allure of Archives, that set a benchmark in the archiving sector. Published in 1989, it recounts her work as a passionate historian.
Hailed as a classic, it reflects on writing history using the words and experiences of forgotten individuals. In it, she describes the atmosphere unique to archive rooms and poignantly shares her encounters with people from the past.
The now-retired CNRS research director likens the practice of archiving to the work of a monastic scribe, but one who makes surprising and wonderful discoveries from time to time.
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