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Jules Michelet

File:Jules_Michelet_par_Thomas_Couture_(cropped).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Jules Michelet

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Also known as Zhiul Mishle

French historian; popularized the historical concept of the Renaissance

OverviewAI-generated

Jules Michelet was a French author whose professional career spanned from 1821 to 1874. Born on August 21 or 22, 1798, he died on February 9, 1874. His literary output includes works such as *History of France: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time*, *Introduction à l'histoire universelle: suivie du discours d'ouverture, prononcé en 1834 à la ...*, *Compendio de la historia moderna*, *Guerres de religion*, and *Historical View of the French Revolution: From Its Earliest Indications to the Flight of the ...*.

Michelet is associated with various recorded works, with counts ranging from five to thirty-six depending on the catalog. He has been referenced by 625 other encyclopedia articles. Among his recorded quotes are statements regarding the French Revolution, noting that "Out of India, until [17]89 there fell a torrent of light—the river of Right and Reason," and observations on national identity, such as "The intimate fusion of races is the identity of our nation, its personality."

Synthesized by Vinony from 18 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Europeana Sparql, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
23

Top works

  • History of France: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time
  • Introduction à l'histoire universelle: suivie du discours d'ouverture, prononcé en 1834 à la ...
  • Compendio de la historia moderna
  • Guerres de religion
  • Historical View of the French Revolution: From Its Earliest Indications to the Flight of the ..

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
11
Total plays
331

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Jules+Michelet">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Jules Michelet

Quotes

  • Out of India, [[French Revolution|until [17]89]] there fell a torrent of light—the river of Right and Reason.
  • Michelet held that the Vedas "were undoubtedly the first monument of the world" and that from India emanated "a torrent of light and the flow of reason and Right". He proclaimed that "the migrations of mankind follow the route of the sun from East to West along the sun's course. . . . At its starting point, man arose in India, the birthplace of races and of religions, the womb of the world".
  • With the world began a war that will only end with the world, and not before: that of man against nature, mind against matter, freedom against fate. History is nothing but the story of this endless struggle.
  • The intimate fusion of races is the identity of our nation, its personality.
  • The last people in the world in whom the personality would consent to be absorbed into pantheism is the French.
  • France is the daughter of freedom. In human progress, the essential part, the main force, is called man. Man is his own Prometheus.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Works in European collections

36 objects attributed to Jules Michelet, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~19 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Jules Michelet ( French: [ʒyl miʃlɛ]; 21 August 1798 – 9 February 1874) was a French historian and writer, best known for his multi-volume work Histoire de France (History of France), which chronicles the history of France from its earliest origins to the French Revolution. Michelet was influenced by Giambattista Vico, particularly by his emphasis on the role of ordinary people and their customs in shaping historical narratives, which contrasted with the traditional focus on political and military elites. Michelet also drew inspiration from Vico's concept of the corsi e ricorsi—the cyclical nature of history—in which societies rise and fall in a recurring pattern.

In Histoire de France, Michelet coined the term ''Renaissance'' (French for "rebirth") to describe a cultural movement in Europe that marked a clear departure from the Middle Ages. Although the term was initially used by the Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari in 1550 to describe the revival of classical art beginning with Giotto, Michelet was the first historian to apply the French equivalent systematically to a broader historical era. His use of the term "Renaissance'' established the modern interpretation of this period as a time of renewed humanism, artistic flourishing, and intellectual transformation in "post-medieval" Europe.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jules Michelet” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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