Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, born in Moutiers-en-Cinglais, France, in 1929. Professor of Modern History at Collège de France, Paris.
KB Fellow (Winter 2006)
HISTORY OF CLIMATE IN FRANCE AND NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES (1300-2000)
During my tenure as KB Fellow in Wassenaar and The Hague (February 2006) I will further develop my scholarly research on warm episodes and glaciers which has already been presented in my recent book (in French) Histoire humaine et comparée du climat [A Human and Comparative History of Climate 12th-18th Century]. The second volume of this book (to be published in 2006 or 2007) will be based on (amongst other things) the research carried out in the Low Countries (in 2005) covering the period 1740-1860. This volume will deal with climate and subsistence under Louis XV and Louis XVI, during the French Revolution, the Napoleontic Era, the Monarchy of the Restored Bourbons, Louis-Philippe and the Second Republic and the end of the Little Ice Age. It will focus on the relationship between meterological fluctuations and famines, riots, epidemics, politics, etc.
Furthermore I plan to give two lectures. The first will be on “The history of climate and meterological episodes in France, Western Europe and Scandanavia from 12/13th-20/21st century: various human and other aspects”. The second lecture will be on the “Travels of the Swiss Student Thomas Platter in the Southern Low Countries in 1599”. I have already published two big volumes (one of which is translated into Dutch) on the Platter family. I will base this lecture on unpublished material taken from a third volume to be published in French in 2006.
During my stay I also hope to spend time at the The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in De Bilt.
Selected Publications:
Les Paysans de Languedoc (1966)
Histoire du Climat depuis l’An Mil (1967) (1983)
Montaillou, village occitan, 1975, (English), (French)
Le Territoire, de l’Historien Vol. 1 (1973)
Le Territoire, de l’Historien Vol. 2 (1978)
Le Carnaval de Romans, 1579-1580 (1980)
L’Etat royal (1987)
L’Ancien Regime (1991)
Le Siècle de Platter (1995)
Saint-Simon, le systeme de la Cour (1997)
Histoire humaine et comparée du climat (2004)