Aron Gurevich

Aron Yakovlevich Gurevich (also spelled Aaron Gurevich ; May 12, 1924 – August 5, 2006) was a Russian medievalist historian, working on the European culture of the Middle Ages.

Gurevich's work was informed by Jacques Le Goff and Georges Duby, and he considered himself a member of their Annales School. He was also influenced by ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, challenging some of them at the same time. Gurevich's work was considered anti-Marxist and met with hostility in the Soviet Union, but enjoyed support abroad among the Annales School, although he was not allowed to travel abroad before Perestroika. He won the 1988 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

Life and career

Aron Gurevich was born in Moscow on May 12, 1924, to a secular Jewish family. In 1946 he graduated from the Moscow State University. He initially specialized in Scandinavian languages. In 1962 Gurevich received a Doktor nauk degree at Leningrad University.

Aron Gurevich returned to Kalinin and became a professor in 1963. He won the 1988 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

In 1989 during Perestroika Gurevich was allowed to exit the country for the first time, and he lectured abroad in 1989–1991.

In 1993 he became a head of the Institute of the World History at the Moscow State University.

Publications Gurevich A. J. Categories of Medieval culture. Trans. by G. L. Campbell. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. Gurevich, Aron. Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception. Trans. by János M. Bak & Paul A. Hollingsworth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Bornstein, Daniel. Review of Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception by Aron Gurevich; János M. Bak; Paul A. Hollingsworth. Church History, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Jun., 1990), pp. 234–235. Van Engen, John. Review of Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception by Aron Gurevich. Journal of Social History, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 164–167. Madigan, Kevin. Review of Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception by Aron Gurevich; Janos M. Bak; Paul A. Hollingsworth. The Journal of Religion, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Apr., 1990), pp. 254–255. Gurevich, Aaron. Historical Anthropology of the Middle Ages. Ed. by J. Howlett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Carruthers, Mary J. Review of Historical Anthropology of the Middle Ages by Aaron Gurevich; Jana Howlett. The American Historical Review, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Oct., 1993), pp. 1220. Wylie, Jonathan. Review of Historical Anthropology of the Middle Ages by Aaron Gurevich. Ethnohistory, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Spring, 1994), pp. 331–333. Gurevich, Aaron. The Origins of European Individualism. Trans. by K. Judelson. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.