Jacques LE GOFF

French historian medievalist

Jacques Le Goff (1 January 1924 ~ 1 April 2014) was a French historian medievalist that led the Annales School. His books and studies emphasized on long-term trends over politics, diplomacy, and war. The last 3 topics dominated 19th-century historical research before Le Goff paid attention to mentality, linguistics and other aspects of human life. From 1972 to 1977, he was the head of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He was a leading figure of New History movement related to cultural history. His main thesis was that the Middle Ages formed a civilization of its own, distinct from both Classical Antiquity and the modern world.

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