François Crouzet

François Crouzet (20 October 1922 – 20 March 2010) was a French historian. Considered the greatest French historian of Britain of his generation, he was Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne at the time of his death.

Life and career Crouzet was born in Monts-sur-Guesnes, the son of who served as the Inspector General for History under France's Ministry of National Education. After graduating with his Baccalauréat from the Lycée Hoche in 1939, he was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure which his father had also attended. He passed his Agrégation in history with full marks in 1945 and began teaching at a lycée in Beauvais. Between 1946 and 1949 he was in the UK on fellowships to carry out research in British history that would ultimately form the basis of his doctoral dissertation. Based at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Historical Research and spending much of his time in the Public Record Office, he became a life-long Anglophile. During his London years, he met and married Françoise Dabert-Hauser, the granddaughter of the French historian Henri Hauser. It was awarded the Prix Georges Mauguin by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques and was published in a revised and expanded second edition in 1988. Much of his subsequent work and research stemmed from the ideas that he explored in the book. He dedicated the final years of his life to writing his memoirs. They were published posthumously in 2012 as De mémoire d'historien: Chroniques d'un XXe siècle disparu with an introduction by Denis Crouzet.

Bibliography in English Several of Crouzet's key books have been published in English or in English translation. These include: Capital Formation in the Industrial Revolution (Methuen, 1972) The Victorian Economy (Methuen, 1982), published in French as L'Économie de la Grande-Bretagne victorienne (Société d'édition d'enseignement supérieur, 1978) Britain Ascendant: Comparative Studies in Franco-British Economic History (Cambridge University Press, 1985), published in French as De la Superiorite de l'Angleterre sur la France (Perrin, 1985) The First Industrialists: The Problem of Origins (Cambridge University Press, 1985) Britain, France, and International Commerce: From Louis XIV to Victoria (Ashgate Variorum, 1995) A History of the European Economy, 1000-2000 (University Press of Virginia, 2001), published in French as Histoire de l’économie européenne 1000-2000 (Albin Michel, 2000)

Awards and distinctions François Crouzet received honorary doctorates from the University of Birmingham (1977), University of Kent (1985), University of Leicester (1989), and the University of Edinburgh (1993). His other awards and distinctions include: 1959 Prix Georges Mauguin, Académie des sciences morales et politiques for L'économie britannique et le blocus continental 1973 elected Fellow of the British Academy

1980 Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire 1987 Grand Prix d'Histoire de la Ville de Paris 2001 Prix Guizot, Académie française for Histoire de l’économie européenne 1000-2000 2008 Prix Rossi, Académie des sciences morales et politiques for La guerre économique franco-anglaise au XVIIIe siècle