Born on July 19, 1929, in Les Moutiers-en-Cinglais (Calvados); French national. Married in 1956; two children.
Died on November 22, 2023.
Education and Professional Career
- University-Certified Professor
- Doctor of Letters
- Alumnus of the École normale supérieure
- 1955: High school teacher in Montpellier
- 1957: Research Associate at the CNRS
- 1960: Assistant at the Faculty of Arts in Montpellier
- 1963: Senior Assistant Professor, then Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études
- 1970: Professor at the Sorbonne
- 1971: Professor at the University of Paris-VII
- 1973–1999: Professor at the Collège de France in the Chair of the History of Modern Civilization
- 1987–1994: General Administrator of the National Library
Awards and Honors
- Chair of the Scientific Council of the National Library of France
- Commander of the Legion of Honor and of the Order of Arts and Letters
- Member of the Institut (Academy of Moral and Political Sciences)
- Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Geneva (1978), Michigan (1981), Leeds (1982), Leicester (1986), York (1986), Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh (1987), Durham (1987), Hull (1990), Dublin (1992), Albany, Montreal (1993), Haifa (1993), Oxford (1993), and Pennsylvania (1995)
- 1974: Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Sciences
- 2006: Honorary Member of the Japan Academy
- 2018: Awarded the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit