George Lefebvre

George Lefebvre was an important historian who focused largely on social interpretations of history. Largely, the importance of peasants to the historical timeline. He specifically focused on French peasantry and their role in the French revolution. His work basically began as an archivist, looking at documents from the Revolution that discussed the daily lives of peasants. In 1928 he was invited by the founders of the Annales school to join the faculty of the University of Strasbourg. He strongly believed in the values of the French Revolution such as truth and justice and his biography of Napoleon was more or less a criticism of the modern day dictators of Europe and their lack of these ideals. He was interested in the revolutionary mentalities of France that were grounded in his study of the peasantry. One criticism of him was that his social interpretation was favorable towards Marxism which was unpopular.