The Ancient City - Coulanges

Born in Paris, Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1830-1889) was a pioneer and creator in the use of scientific approach to the study of history in France. "The Ancient City" is his most famous book. Coulanges follows the Cartesian method, and the work is based on texts from ancient historians and poets where the author investigates the remote origins of the institutions of Greek and Roman societies. In "The Ancient City," the reader can identify how our ancestors' relationships were with the sacred fire, social culture, and their families. The author exposes in a clear and objective manner the life, customs, tradition, and rituals that significantly contribute to the formation of present-day society. Fustel is considered one of the most influential positivist thinkers of the 19th century. In his most famous work, examples and concise criticisms could not be missing, proving the possibility of evaluating history empirically like any other science.

Born in Paris, Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1830-1889) was a pioneer and innovator in the use of the scientific approach to studying history in France. During the 1860s, he taught history at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Strasbourg, where he had a brilliant career as a professor. Among his numerous appointments throughout his life were a position as a professor at the École Normale Supérieure in February 1870, a chair at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Paris in 1875, the chair of medieval history at the Sorbonne in 1878, and the directorship of the École Normale in 1880. Fustel adhered to two fundamental principles for analyzing history: the importance of complete objectivity and the unreliability of secondary sources. Through his teaching and example, he established the modern idea of historical impartiality at a time when few people had any qualms about combining careers as historians and politicians. Controversial and uncompromising with his critics, Fustel is certainly one of the greatest positivist thinkers of 19th-century France. His empirical approach to assessing history influenced later generations of historians such as Marc Bloch and continues to be debated to this day.