Europe’s Forgotten Students? The Historiography of 19th and early 20th century Students in France

Abstract

Historians’ interest in university history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been more limited in the case of France than for other countries. This interest has been even weaker with regard to students, a situation that only began to change at the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, pioneering work could have launched a research dynamic from the 1980s onwards, as the first part of this article shows and explains. In its second part, this paper analyzes the main themes addressed by the historiography of students in France. After underlining some of its persistent limitations, proposals for future research will be made.