Sarah Keymeulen
and Jo Tollebeek, Henri Pirenne, Historian: A Life in Pictures. Leuven:
Lipsius/Leuven University Press, 2012.
Preface by Martha Howell.
Reviewed by: Martin O. Heisler (mheisler@umd.edu)
Was there one
Henri Pirenne beneath historians' many Henri Pirennes, and if so, who was
he? Medievalists look to his original
research on the development of cities, and, of course, Mohammed and Charlemagne, his novel argument for the demise of the
western Roman Empire. That work engendered
controversy when it was published, posthumously, in 1937; and it has been
(ab)used for political purposes for more than 70 years, first as a tool for
advancing Nazi ideology[1]
and now as fuel for anti-Islamic arguments.[2] Others see a national historian, the author
of a monumental seven-volume work intent on rooting the Belgian nation in the
distant past; still others associate him with methodological and analytic
progress in economic and social history[3]
or his general History of Europe,
republished most recently in 2008. The
renowned Dutch scholar, Pieter Geyl -- while critical of the underlying
argument of Pirenne's history of Belgium (because it contradicted Geyl's
"Greater Nederlandish thesis") -- found the scholarship
"impressive," but thought of Pirenne mainly as a historiographer.[4] Pirenne's son Jacques, also a noted
historian, remarked that specialists had either lost sight of -- or had never
gained an appreciation for -- the coherence of the large and diverse corpus of
his father's work.[5]
This small,
elegant and insightful book makes it easy to appreciate the integral man and
his scholarship. It draws heavily on the
Pirenne archives at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Ghent
University Library, both of which have recently had exhibitions focused on
material in their holdings.[6] In about 50 pages of text (pictures,
reproductions of documents and diary pages, chronologies and bibliographies
take up the greater part of the book's 120 pages) it locates Pirenne in his
time and place, in European events and in the world of academic historians in
Europe, especially in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The influences on his ideas, methods of
research and narrative style are suggested through his experiences and
connections, rather than textual analysis.
There is as
much or more of substance here on the formative and transformative experiences
that helped to shape the choices of subject and orientation of Pirenne's œuvre than could be found in
some full-length biographies.[7] The description of his family and early
education is followed by a close and well-documented account of his turn toward
history -- and specific subjects in history -- even while adhering to his
father's wish that he study law. In
pages reproduced from his diary, the authors allow Pirenne to express the
thinking that led him to the work that would come to define him. A month before his twentieth birthday,
Pirenne noted that he was captivated by the history of medieval municipalities: "I believe that later on, when I am a
lawyer, these studies will form a part of the national heritage, . . . into
which I will conduct research and in which I will try to achieve
something" (p. 23). He followed a
doctorate in history at the age of 20 (roughly equivalent to a Master's degree
in the U.S.) with a thesis on the establishment in the Middle Ages of the town
of Dinant, with studies in France and Germany; and he opened himself to the
intellectual influence of Karl Lamprecht and others.
By World War I
Pirenne's reputation in Europe as well as Belgium was so great, and the public
expressions of his patriotism so vigorous, that the country's occupiers feared
his influence and interned him in Germany.
Germany's actions in the war, coupled with a jingoistic turn by many
prominent historians, including Pirenne's erstwhile friend, Lamprecht, led him
to reassess not only some of his personal and professional ties but also the
methodological and intellectual influence of his German associates. While his internment was far from arduous --
he had access to university libraries in the region to which he was
limited; good food and Havana cigars;
and opportunities to teach and write (and to learn Russian) -- his
disappointment that nationalist cant and rationalization subordinated intellectual
and professional values muted his commitment to national history. Although he completed his seven volume history
of Belgium, his attention was increasingly directed toward European history. This move was encouraged by sometimes
intemperate criticisms of his national history by Geyl and others outside
Belgium; Pirenne then turned to Mahomet
et Charlemagne, which he saw, in Keymeulen and Tollebeek's words "as
his 'spiritual testament'" (p. 96).
Is that
testament in danger of being hugged to death by anti-Islamists in the United
States and Europe? Googling Mohammed and Charlemagne today quickly
brings up a book by an Emmet Scott (background obscure), marketed by an equally
obscure publisher of ultraconservative books and periodicals, with little or no
presence among scholars of any sort, anywhere.
Most of the comments about the book on Amazon's web site suggest that
Pirenne's name and work are living a strange and disturbing life. Keymeulen and Tollebeek convincingly show
Pirenne's abhorrence of nationalistic and sectarian sentiments, so it can be
said with confidence that he would be aghast.
Martin O. Heisler
University of Maryland
[1]
Henri Pirenne, Historian: A Life in Pictures (Leuven: Lipsius Leuven/Leuven University Press,
2012), pp. 104-5,
[2]
Most notably, Emmet Scott, Mohammed and
Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a
Controversy (Nashville: New English
Press, 2012).
[3]
Erik Thoen and Eric Vanhaute, "Pirenne and economic and social
theory: influences, methods and
reception," Revue belge d'Histoire
contemporaine/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis, 41, 3-4
(2011): 323-353. This article appeared in a special issue of
the journal, Henri Pirenne: un historien belge face au développement des
sciences sociales et historiques, eds. M. Boone, C. Billen and S.
Keymeulen.
[4]
Personal conversations, Utrecht, January 1964.
See also Henri Pirenne, historian,
pp. 95-96..
[5]
Personal conversations; Brussels, October - December 1963. See also Martha Howell's one-page Preface to
the work under review.
[6]
Since 2005, most of Pirenne's papers, as well as pictorial and documentary
material, have been in the public domain.
Much of it has been digitized, accessible here. Pirenne held a
professorship at Ghent from 1885 (when he was 24 !) until 1930, when the
university instituted a Nederlands-only
policy (for most in practice still Flemish then) as the language of
instruction. Although he probably could
have developed the polished command of the language to teach at the elegant
level he demanded of himself, he chose to take early retirement (at the age of
67). He left in part as a matter of
principle against what he saw as enforced provincialism and in part for
personal convenience.
[7]
The best known biography in English is Bryce Lyon, Henri Pirenne. A Biographical
and Intellectual Study (Ghent: E.
Story-Scientia, 1974.) Keymeulen and
Tollebeek are somewhat critical of Lyon's rather hagiographic work, as was
Elizabeth A. R. Brown in her review essay in History and Theory 15, 1 (1976):
66-76.
