Pierre Nora

Nora was born in Paris on 17 November 1931,{{sfn|Kendall|2025}} the youngest son of four children – the others were Simon, Jean and Jacqueline – born to Gaston Nora, a prominent Parisian urologist,{{efn|Together with Louis Halphen and Robert Debré, Gaston Nora arranged for an integral translation of Mein Kampf after a previous French edition had systematically suppressed passages regarding Hilter's hostility to Jews. He was a secular Jew who was attracted to the theory, espoused by Halphen on the basis of a passage in a letter by St Martin, that French Jews were not descended from immigrants but rather from communities of indigenous Gallo-Romans who had converted to Judaism millennia ago, and therefore as authentically French as anyone else {{harv|Nora|2021|p=27}}.}} and his wife, Julie Lehman.{{sfn|Nora|2021|p=107}} During the war, he became acquainted with intellectuals Jean Prévost and Jean Beaufret, who was to become a major figure in the introduction of Heidegger's philosophy to France.{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=32,38,138–139}} In the 1950s, together with Jacques Derrida,{{sfn|Nora|2021|p=141}} he took hypokhâgne and khâgne at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand but, contrary to popular belief, he thrice failed to be accepted at the École Normale Supérieure.{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Nora|2021|p=135}} This setback, which he shared with his school-mate Pierre Vidal-Naquet, was one which Nora came to regard as a stroke of luck, particularly in terms of the example set by another friend, Jean-François Revel,{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=143–146}} since it made him believe he was led to live a far more interesting life than would otherwise have been the case, contrasting his own situation with that of Gérard Granel.{{sfn|Birnbaum|2021}}{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=136–137,141}} Around this time, the poet René Char came to play an important role in his formation. Through him Nora met his first love, Madagascan Marthe Cazal (1907–1983), a major model for the figure of Justine in Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet.{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=152–181}} Thereafter, he obtained a {{lang|fr|licence de lettres}} (equivalent to the Bachelor of Arts) degree in philosophy.{{sfn|Kendall|2025}} He passed the {{lang|fr|agrégation d'histoire}} in 1958.{{sfn|Procure|2025}}

Nora taught at the Lycée Lamoricière d'Oran in Algeria from 1958 until 1960. He wrote a book about his experiences, published under the title {{lang|fr|Les Français d'Algérie}} ("The French of Algeria") (1961).{{sfn|Kendall|2025}} In 1962, when the Évian peace treaty was signed – later confirmed by a subsequent referendum – which ended the Algerian War, a ceasefire came into effect. Nora, despite not knowing a word of Hebrew was asked to travel there and both look into the situation of Algerian Jews and secure their archives for repatriation. He met Ben Bella who, embracing him, asked Nora to sit by his side as his motorcade drove into Algiers the following day. Ben Bella was under the impression that Nora, whose account of Algeria he had read with admiration while in prison, was a member of the local Algerian Jewish community. During the same May week, he was stopped with several others by a group of insurgents and stood against a wall for execution, a fate avoided by the timely intervention of the local police.{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=194–195}}

From 1961 to 1963, he was a resident at the Fondation Dosne-Thiers. From 1965 to 1977 he was first assistant and then lecturer at the {{lang|fr|Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris}} (Paris Institute of Political Science). From 1977 he was the director of studies at the {{lang|fr|École des hautes études en sciences sociales}} (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), holding the post for four decades.{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}. In 2014, Nora received the Dan David Prize for his contribution to "History and Memory."{{sfn|Gravé-Lazi|2014}}{{sfn|Dan David|2023}}

Concurrently, Nora had pursued an important career in publishing. He joined Éditions Julliard in 1964, where he created the Archives paperback collection.{{sfn|Académie française|2025}} In 1965 he joined Éditions Gallimard:{{sfn|Académie française|2025}} the publishing house, which already had a good market share in literature, wanted to develop its social sciences sector. It was Pierre Nora who achieved this mission by creating two important collections, the Library of social sciences in 1966 and the Library of histories in 1970, as well as the {{lang|fr|Témoins}} collection in 1967.{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Nonnenmacher|2025}}

At Éditions Gallimard, under Nora's direction many major works of scholarship were published that became landmarks in their respective fields. Among them figure:

• In the Library of social sciences, Raymond Aron ({{lang|fr|Les Étapes de la pensée sociologique}}, 1967), Georges Dumézil ({{lang|fr|Mythe et épopée}}, 1968–1973), Marcel Gauchet ({{lang|fr|Le Désenchantement du monde}}, 1985), Claude Lefort ({{lang|fr|Les Formes de l'histoire}}, 1978), Henri Mendras ({{lang|fr|La Seconde Révolution française}}, 1988), Michel Foucault (Les Mots et les Choses,, 1966, and L'Archéologie du savoir, 1969).
• In the Library of histories, François Furet ({{lang|fr|Penser la Révolution française}}, 1978), Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie ({{lang|fr|Montaillou}}, 1975, best sale of the collection with 145 000 copies), Michel de Certeau ({{lang|fr|L'Écriture de l'histoire}}, 1975), Georges Duby ({{lang|fr|Le Temps des cathédrales}}, 1976), Jacques Le Goff (Saint Louis, 1997), Jean-Pierre Vernant ({{lang|fr|L'Individu, la mort, l'amour}}, 1989), Maurice Agulhon ({{lang|fr|Histoire vagabonde}}, 1988–1996), Michel Foucault (Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, 1972, {{lang|fr|Surveiller et punir}}, 1975, and Histoire de la sexualité, 1976–1984).
• Foreign researchers whom he introduced in France, like Ernst Kantorowicz ({{lang|fr|Les Deux Corps du roi}}, 1959, published in 1989), Thomas Nipperdey ({{lang|fr|Réflexions sur l'histoire allemande}}, 1983–1992, in 1992), Karl Polanyi ({{lang|fr|La Grande Transformation}}, 1944, in 1983).

This important role gave to Nora a certain power in French publishing and he was also the object of criticism. He declined to translate Eric Hobsbawm's work, The Age of Extremes (1994). Nora admired the book, admitted its high quality but after a long delay, turned it down, telling Hobsbawm that the high costs of translation would make its sale price prohibitive, and the French left itself, given the times, would be hostile. A further reason, Nora mentioned to a third party, was that the Shoah by then had moved to the centre of cultural memory and the word Auschwitz only appeared once in Hobsbawm's book.{{sfn|Evans|2019|pp=418–419}} Publicly, he stated in 1997 that his rejection stemmed from the author's "attachment to the revolutionary cause". Nora explained that context of hostility towards Communism in France was not appropriate to that type of publication, that all the editors, "like it or not, had an obligation to take account of the intellectual and ideological situation in which they had written their works".{{sfn|Nora|1997}}

In May 1980, Nora founded at Gallimard the review {{lang|fr|Le Débat}}{{sfn|Académie française|2025}} with philosopher Marcel Gauchet; this quickly became one of the major French intellectual reviews.{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Nonnenmacher|2025}} In 1983 French historian Jacques Julliard judged Nora to be the natural heir to the role played by Raymond Aron.{{sfn|Ivry|2011}}

Nora was well known for having directed {{lang|fr|Les Lieux de Mémoire}}, three volumes which gave as their point the work of enumerating the places and the objects in which are the incarnate national memory of the French.{{sfn|Kendall|2025}} Nora's book {{lang|fr|Les Français d'Algérie}} ("The French of Algeria") (1961) has received scholarly criticism for its alleged bias against French Algerians ("Pieds-Noirs") – a prejudice held by many French intellectuals of the time. Nora posited that the French Algerians (or settlers) were different from the French of the Metropol. His opinions were developed from his two years as a high school teacher in Algiers. "The French of Algeria" is described as synthesizing "a self-righteous anti-pied noir discourse".{{sfn|Shepard|2008|pp=195–204}} "The French of Algiers" is often cited as a scholarly work, though some dissent. David Prochaska, American historian of French Algeria argues that it is in fact "not based on original research and is devoid of the usual scholarly apparatus".{{sfn|Shepard|2008|p=196}}{{sfn|Prochaska|2002|p=6}}

Nora was the brother of Simon Nora, a senior French administrative professional. He was the uncle of Olivier Nora, the president and publisher of the French publishing house Editions Grasset.{{Cite web |last=Beuve-Mery |first=Alain |date=April 9, 2009 |title=Olivier Nora, héritier des lettres |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2009/04/09/olivier-nora-heritier-des-lettres_1178718_3260.html |website=Le Monde}}

He was married to art historian and curator Françoise Cachin from 1964 to 1976{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Noce|2011}} , and had a 40-year relationship with Gabrielle van Zuylen,{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Nora|2021|p=86}} who died in 2010. After 2012, he lived with French journalist and TV anchor Anne Sinclair, ex-wife of journalist Ivan Levaï and of former politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn.{{sfn|Montefiori|2021}}{{sfn|Terrade|2021}} He had a son, now a biologist in San Francisco,{{sfn|Kendall|2025}} by a third companion.{{sfn|Birnbaum|2021}}{{sfn|Nora|2021|p=130}}

Nora was an Ashkenazi Jew.{{efn|The name Nora is an anadrome reversing the order of letters of Aron, a form which conserves, while dissimulating, the Jewish name and yet retains a meaning – {{lang|he|נורא}} (redoubtable, awesome). The change occurred when Moise Aron (1749–1813) complied with a Napoleonic decree that required names to be registered. These Arons were one of 4 families in Hellimer whose residence in Alsace had been confirmed by the authorization of Stanisław Leszczyński in the early 18th century.{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=125–126}}{{sfn|Faustini|2004|pp=268–270}}}}{{efn|As a child, he was drilled to recite his Jewish prayers, such as the Sh'ma Israël by the family governess and nursemaid, a practicing Breton Catholic spinster.{{sfn|Nora|2021|pp=45–46, 90–91}}}} In 2001, on the occasion of his induction into the Académie française in the wake of the death of the novelist Michel Droit, he had his ceremonial sword inscribed with the Star of David to attest to his feeling that 'the Jewish contribution to the world belongs to things of the mind more than to weaponry. Because I shall consider myself Jewish as long as somewhere a Jew is threatened because of his identity.'{{sfn|Nora|Rémond|2002}}

Nora died in Paris on 2 June 2025, aged 93.{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}{{sfn|Kendall|2025}}{{sfn|Flandrin|2025}}

• Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (France){{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}

• 1988 : Prix Diderot-Universalis{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 1991 : Louise-Weiss Award of the Bibliothèque nationale de France{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 1993: Grand prix Gobert of the Académie Française{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 1993: French Grand National History Prize.{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 2012: Prix Montaigne de Bordeaux{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 2014: Dan David Prize{{sfn|Dan David|2023}}

• 1989 : Université Laval

Nora's works include:

• 1961: {{lang|fr|Les Français d'Algérie}}, prefaced by Charles-André Julien (Julliard) ISBN 978-2-267-02423-4.{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}{{sfn|Nonnenmacher|2025}}

• 1970–1979: {{lang|fr|Vincent Auriol. Journal du Septennat 1947–1954}} (Armand Colin){{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 1973: {{lang|fr|Faire de l'histoire}} (Gallimard){{sfn|Académie française|2025}}{{sfn|Dan David|2023}}
• 1987: {{lang|fr|Essais d'ego-histoire}} (Gallimard){{sfn|Académie française|2025}}
• 1984–1992: {{lang|fr|Les Lieux de mémoire}} (Gallimard), abridged translation, Realms of Memory, Columbia University Press, 1996–1998{{sfn|Académie française|2025}}{{sfn|Dan David|2023}}{{sfn|Nonnenmacher|2025}}
• 1999: Rethinking France: Les Lieux de mémoire, Volume 1: The State (University of Chicago Press)[https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3640853.html Rethinking France / The State] University of Chicago Press
• 2006: Rethinking France: Les Lieux de mémoire, Volume 2: Space (University of Chicago Press)[https://www.abebooks.com/9780226591339/Rethinking-France-Lieux-m%C3%A9moire-Volume-0226591336/plp Rethinking France / Space] abebooks.com
• 2009: Rethinking France: Les Lieux de mémoire, Volume 3: Legacies (University of Chicago Press)[https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo6252600.html Rethinking France / Legacies] University of Chicago Press
• 2010: Rethinking France: Les Lieux de mémoire, Volume 4: Histories and Memories (University of Chicago Press)[https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3640853.html Rethinking France / Histories and Memories] University of Chicago Press

• Memory space (social science)

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|20em}}

{{refbegin|35em}}

• {{Cite news| title = Pierre Nora, enfin père. L'historien signe " Jeunesse ", un essai autobiographique

| last = Birnbaum | first = Jean

| author-link = Jean Birnbaum

| newspaper = Le Monde | department = Le Monde des Livres

| language = fr

| url = https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2021/03/21/pierre-nora-enfin-pere-l-historien-signe-jeunesse-un-essai-autobiographique_6073926_3260.html

| date = 21 March 2021

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Pierre Nora, homo historicus

| last = Dosse | first = François | year = 2011

| publisher = Librairie Académique Perrin

| isbn = 978-2-262-03379-8

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History

| last = Evans | first = Richard J. | year = 2019

| publisher = Hachette UK

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KElrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT418

| isbn = 978-1-408-70742-5

}}

• {{Cite book| title = La communauté juive de Hellimer: documents 1700-1850

| last = Faustini | first = Pascal | year = 2004

| publisher = Thionville

| language = fr

}}

• {{Cite news| title = L’historien Pierre Nora est mort

| url = https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/06/02/l-historien-pierre-nora-est-mort_6610257_3382.html

| last = Flandrin | first = Antoine | date = 2 June 2025

| newspaper = Le Monde

| language = fr

| access-date = 2 June 2025

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Dan David Foundation Announces Winners of Prizes

| last = Gravé-Lazi | first = Lidar

| newspaper = The Jerusalem Post

| url = https://www.jpost.com/national-news/dan-david-foundation-announces-winners-of-prize-341108

| date = 11 February 2014

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Building a Collective Consciousness on a National Scale

| last = Ivry | first = Benjamin

| magazine = The Forward

| url = https://forward.com/culture/138461/building-a-collective-consciousness-on-a-national/

| date = 8 June 2011

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Pierre Nora, 93, Who Probed Role of Memory in the Writing of History, Dies

| last = Kendall | first = Jonathan

| newspaper = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/books/pierre-nora-dead.html

| date = 3 June 2025

| access-date = 5 June 2025

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Parigi, le confessioni di Anne Sinclair: "Ero sottomessa a Strauss Khan"

| last = Montefiori | first = Stefano

| newspaper = Corriere della Sera

| language = it

| url = https://www.corriere.it/esteri/21_maggio_26/parigi-confessioni-anne-sinclair-ero-sottomessa-strauss-khan-8286dec8-be62-11eb-a5e7-170774e96424.shtml

| date = 26 May 2021

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Françoise Cachin, en pointillé

| last = Noce | first = Vincent

| newspaper = Libération

| language = fr

| url = https://www.liberation.fr/culture/2011/02/07/francoise-cachin-en-pointille_712899/

| date = 7 February 2011

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Zum Gedächtnis: Pierre Nora (1931–2025)

| last = Nonnenmacher | first = Kai

| website = rentree.de

| language = de

| url = https://rentree.de/2025/06/03/zum-gedaechtnis-pierre-nora-1931-2025/

| date = 3 June 2025

| access-date = 5 June 2025

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Traduire: nécessité et difficultés

| last = Nora | first = Pierre

| journal = Le Débat

| date = January–February 1997 | volume = 93 | issue = 93 | pages = 93–95

| doi = 10.3917/deba.093.0093 | language = fr

| url = https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-debat-1997-1-page-93.htm

| url-access = subscription

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Jeunesse

| last = Nora | first = Pierre | year = 2021

| publisher = Éditions Gallimard

| language = fr

| isbn = 978-2-072-93867-2

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Discours de réception à l'Académie française et réponse de René Rémond

| last1 = Nora | first1 = Pierre

| last2 = Rémond | first2 = René

| author2-link = René Rémond

| year = 2002

| publisher = Éditions Gallimard

| language = fr

| isbn = 978-2-070-76745-8

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bône, 1870 – 1920

| last = Prochaska | first = David | year = 2002

| orig-year = First published 1990

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aB2FdDy8xjEC&pg=PA6

| isbn = 978-0-521-53128-3

}}

• {{Cite book| title = The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France

| last = Shepard | first = Todd | year = 2008

| publisher = Cornell University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=16bzFl12fYMC&pg=PA197

| isbn = 978-0-801-47454-5

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Remembered Realms: Pierre Nora and French National Memory

| last = Tai | first = Hue-Tam Ho

| journal = The American Historical Review

| date = June 2001 | volume = 106 | issue = 3 | pages = 906–922

| doi = 10.2307/2692331 | jstor = 2692331

}}

• {{Cite news| title = " Un être rare ": Anne Sinclair déclare sa flamme à Pierre Nora, son nouveau compagnon

| last = Terrade | first = Xavier

| magazine = Gala

| language = fr

| url = https://www.gala.fr/l_actu/news_de_stars/un-etre-rare-anne-sinclair-declare-sa-flamme-a-pierre-nora-son-nouveau-compagnon_469781

| date = 31 May 2021

}}

• {{Cite web| title = Pierre Nora

| work = Académie française

| language = fr

| url = https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/pierre-nora

| date = 2025

| ref = {{sfnref|Académie française|2025}}

}}

• {{Cite web| title = Pierre Nora

| work = Dan David Prize

| url = https://dandavidprize.org/laureates/pierre-nora/?_gl=1*1yog6sn*_up*MQ..*_ga*ODQ2MjQyNTMxLjE3NDkxMjA4NjM.*_ga_HDFXWCWZEM*czE3NDkxMjM5ODMkbzIkZzEkdDE3NDkxMjQwODMkajI0JGwwJGgw

| date = 2025

| ref = {{sfnref|Dan David|2023}}

}}

• {{Cite web| title = Pierre Nora

| work = La Procure

| language = fr

| url = https://www.laprocure.com/post/5584/pierre-nora?srsltid=AfmBOorSueMzKA2pj0NexO3hr6tMpYCEC8F6hGP5umlWtFjMH_RuIOmd

| date = 2025

| ref = {{sfnref|Procure|2025}}

}}

{{refend}}

• {{IMDb name| 2816910}}
• {{in lang|fr}} [http://www.collectif-smolny.org/article.php3?id_article=777 Catalogue of the Collection Archives of Gallimard Julliard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419211622/http://collectif-smolny.org/article.php3?id_article=777 |date=19 April 2013 }} (founded by Pierre Nora in 1964)

{{Annales School}}

{{Académie française Seat 27}}

{{AcademieFrancaiseCurrentMembers}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nora, Pierre}}

Category:1931 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:20th-century French historians

Category:20th-century French Jews

Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Category:French male non-fiction writers

Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour

Category:Jewish historians

Category:Lycée Carnot alumni

Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni

Category:Members of the Académie Française

Category:Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite

Category:Writers from Paris