Early Life and Career
Le Roy Ladurie was born in Les Moutiers-en-Cinglais, Calvados, the son of Jacques Le Roy Ladurie, minister of Agriculture for Marshal Philippe Pétain and subsequently a resistant. The historian was educated in Caen at the Collège Saint-Joseph, in Paris at the Lycée Henri-IV and in Sceaux at the Lycée Lakanal. He was awarded an agrégation in history from the École Normale Supérieure and a doctorat ès lettres from the University of Paris. Le Roy Ladurie has taught at the Lycée de Montpellier, the University of Montpellier, the École Pratique des Haute Études in Paris, the University of Paris and at the Collège de France, where he occupied from 1973 to 1999 the chair of History of Modern Civilization and is now emeritus professor.
Le Roy Ladurie was a member of the French Communist Party (PCF) between 1945 and 1963. He left the party after doubts caused by the 1956 Hungarian Revolution became too much for him. He has since then analysed his political engagement and Communism in Ouverture, société, pouvoir: de l’Édit de Nantes à la chute du communisme (2004) and Les grands procès politiques, ou la pédagogie infernale (2002).
Le Roy Ladurie often writes for Le Nouvel Observateur, L'Express, and Le Monde newspapers and appears on French television.
Read more about this topic: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“I have always had something to live besides a personal life. And I suspected very early that to live merely in an experience of, in an expression of, in a positive delight in the human cliches could be no business of mine.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“I felt more than ever the necessity of my mission. But I went home out of spirits, I hardly know why. I must work by myself all life long.”
—Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)