History And Its Discontents. Three Answers To The Historiographical Challenge Of The Seventies

Abstract

The social and cultural transformations of the sixties and the
seventies in France gave place to an intense rethinking of the
theory and practice of history. This article is focused on the
contributions which Michel Foucault, Paul Veyne and François
Furet made in that context. The three of them sensed that the
necessary epistemological renewal implied recovering the
works of great figures of thought like Friedrich Nietzsche, Max
Weber, and Alexis de Tocqueville. Today we can still learn from
them ways to continue the never ending task of rethinking history.

Keywords: French historiography, theory of history, Michel
Foucault, Paul Veyne, François Furet.