Georges Lefebvre

Georges Lefebvre (1874–1959) was a French historian of the French Revolution and peasant society. His Marxist social history emphasized the distinct role of peasants and popular movements in revolutionary change.

The Great Fear of 1789: A wave of rural panic and revolt in France during the summer of 1789, involving rumors of aristocratic plots and attacks on seigneurial records. Lefebvre’s landmark study made this rural upheaval central to understanding the Revolution’s popular origins.
Lille: A city in northern France, near the Belgian border, with a long history as a regional and industrial center. Lefebvre taught at the University of Lille, where he developed much of his early scholarship.
The Coming of the French Revolution: Georges Lefebvre’s study of the social and political forces that brought about the French Revolution. It presents his influential account of the Revolution as the convergence of several distinct social revolutions.
Albert Soboul: A French historian of the Revolution known for scholarship on the sans-culottes and the radical phase of 1793–1794. Soboul developed the social interpretation of the Revolution associated with Lefebvre’s scholarly legacy.
The French Revolution: A period of political and social upheaval in France beginning in 1789 and ending with Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power. This is the historical transformation Lefebvre interpreted through class relations and collective action.
University of Strasbourg: A French public research university founded in Strasbourg, a city whose political sovereignty changed repeatedly between France and Germany. Lefebvre held a professorship there before moving to the Sorbonne.
The French Revolution from 1793 to 1799: Georges Lefebvre’s history of the French Revolution’s later phase, from the republic’s radical period through the Directory. This volume extends his social analysis into the Republic’s contested political and military years.
François Furet: A French historian who challenged Marxist and social interpretations of the French Revolution, emphasizing political culture and revolutionary ideology. Furet’s critique directly contested the class-centered revolutionary interpretation Lefebvre helped establish.
Peasant society: The social and economic organization of rural communities whose members depend primarily on agricultural labor. Lefebvre treated rural property, obligations, and village relations as essential to revolutionary history.
Sorbonne: A historic Parisian university and intellectual institution that became part of the University of Paris. Lefebvre’s Sorbonne appointment brought his revolutionary scholarship to France’s leading academic center.

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François Victor Alphonse AulardCompared with: Lefebvre’s social history broadened the framework Aulard had centered on political institutions.