Hans Bender
German psychologist (1907-1991)
Henri Pirenne
Belgian historian (1862-1935)
Henri Pirennewas a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a prominent public intellectual.
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About the Henri Pirenne
Henri Pirennewas a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a prominent public intellectual. Pirenne made a lasting contribution to the study of cities that was a controversial interpretation of the end of Roman civilization and the rebirth of medieval urban culture. He also became prominent in the nonviolent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I.
Henri Pirenne’s reputation today rests on three contributions to European history: for what has become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; for a distinctive view of Belgium’s medieval history; and for his model of the development of the medieval city.
Pirenne argued that profound social, economic, cultural, and religious movements in the long term resulted from equally profound underlying causes, and this attitude influenced Marc Bloch and the outlook of the French Annales School of social history. Though Pirenne had his opponents, notably Alfons Dopsch who disagreed on essential points, several recent historians of the Middle Ages have taken Pirenne’s main theses, however much they are modified, as starting points.
3 Quotes by Henri Pirenne
- 1.
The Germanic invasions destroyed neither the Mediterranean unity of the ancient world, nor what may be regarded as the truly essential features of the Roman culture as it still existed in the 5th century, at a time when there was no longer an Emperor in the West.
Henri PirenneBelgian historian (1862-1935)
- 2.
The cause of the break with the tradition of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam. The result of this advance was the final separation of East from West, and the end of the Mediterranean unity.
Henri PirenneBelgian historian (1862-1935)
- 3.
The Germanic invasions in the West could not and did not in any way alter this state of affairs.
Henri PirenneBelgian historian (1862-1935)