A Passion for History: Conversations with Denis Crouzet - Natalie Zemon Davis

(Truman State University Press), 2010

218pp., $24.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-931112-97-0

Natalie Zemon Davis is one of the leading historians of early modern society and culture perhaps best known for her classic The Return of Martin Guerre.  Her work is innovative based on a rich imagination and deep archival research but above all it is accessible.  For her dialogue is the key to reaching knowledge and understanding and this Socratic approach is well illustrated in this fascinating and remarkably revealing book of conversations with Denis Crouzet, himself a specialist in the French Wars of Religion.  While much autobiographical information emerged in their dialogues, especially the influence of her Jewish background, what makes this book so interesting is her discussion of what it means to be a historian and the controversies about historical method.  I found the brief discussion of Lucien Lefevre and his relationship to Marc Bloch remarkably moving.  Divided into seven chapters each with a single word title such as ‘Fashionings' and ‘Wonderments' and with a bibliography of both parties in the conversation, it is a must for any serious historian.