Past: History & memory

Mr. Pierre Nora is a public intellectual and publisher who helped establish the new historiographic interpretive category “Les lieux de mémoire”.

“Sites of Memory” is a concept that lies at the heart of discussions about the intricate connections and oppositions between history, the public use of the past, and the huge centrality of memory in our media-saturated environment, between places (in a concrete and metaphorical sense), events, individual and collective figures on the one hand and French collective memory, on the other.

Les lieux de mémoire by Nora (three parts in seven volumes) has become a seminal reference for a trans-temporal approach to cultural and social politics. Initially limited to the context of French history, the interpretive field opened up by Nora has been widely and successfully extended to other national experiences, confirming the international fame Nora has gained. 

In addition, Nora directed three volumes of the book Faire de l’histoire with Jacques Le Goff (2007 Dan David Prize laureate) in 1973. This work was an assessment of the historical discipline changes that were occurring at that time.

Pierre Nora is not only a respected member of the French and international academic communities, but he is also a key protagonist whose opinion of French intellectual and public life is highly valued. He is the founder of the prestigious journal Le Débat, an elected member of the Académie française and President of the association “Liberté pour l’Histoire.”