Lucien Febvre: a legacy without heirs?: reflections on the links between history and geography

Abstract

History has traditionally maintained an attitude of generic disregard for geography, whilst geography, on the other hand, has always been looked upon as the «poor relation» of the social sciences. On this basis, the author calls for a closer relationship and mutual respect between the two disciplines. As an example of an early but fruitless attempt towards this end, the author quotes and interprets the contribution of Lucien Febvre (1878-1956), a «classical», author in the programmes of historical methodology and the history of geographical thought.

In his youth, Lucien Febvre acquired direct experience of Vidal de la Blache's French Possibilist school. From his Vidalian beginnings (genre de vie, milieu) Febvre formulated his own synthesis, and applied it to his own field of interest-history.

And from that platform, he continuously pleaded for the development of a methodology designed exclusively for geography, a fact which brought him numerous criticisms from geographer companions, until, together with Marc Bloch, he finally founded Annales in 1929, and to which he dedicated his attention thereafter.

It is probably for that reason that human geography scholars have underestimated or disregarded Febvre's contribution to geography, a contribution which can be observed in his work La Terre et l'évolution humaine (1922) and in other coetaneous articles. This article, therefore, proposes a «geographical reading», of Febvre, and acclaims the viability of his attempts at reform, provided adaptations are incorporated in order to satisfy the present methodological requisites of both disciplines.