In 1966, the Black Panther Party was created in California. Its mission was to protect Black neighbourhoods from police brutality. Building on Black nationalism, the party promotes revolutionary, and sometimes even violent, opposition, against an oppressive power.

This is the untranslated version of the article « Les Black Panthers prennent les armes » published in L'Histoire n° 445, march 2018.

The Enlightenment used to be wrapped up in a set of ideas, the same ideas that guided the Encyclopedia, Voltaire, Rousseau, and their peers. But perhaps the common ground of this large movement is, first and foremost, defined by its practices: instrumental tools at the hands of the revolutionary.

This is the untranslated version of the article « Une culture transatlantique » published in L'Histoire n° 443, january 2018.

The Norse religion has always had a fascinating aura. Nowadays, although historians and archeologists have drawn its outlines, the cult still retains a lot of secrets.

This is the untranslated version of the article « Les légendes du Walhalla » published in L'Histoire n° 442, december 2017.

Far from being a mere mutiny which relied on superstition only, the rebellion of the sepoy soldiers in 1857 is among the strongest anticolonialist mass movements of the xixth century: a founding myth of the Indian nation.

This is the untranslated version of the article « La grande peur des cipayes » published in L'Histoire n° 431, july-augst 2017.

Who remembers Pierre Tourtille Sangrain today? Yet, thanks to him, public lighting was organised in Paris – and in many other cities all over the kingdom of France. Through his life experience, we can outline an emerging flourishing business, growing « out of the shadows » in the 18th century: lights.

This is the untranslated version of the article « un entrepreneur de lumière » published in L'Histoire n° 435, may 2017. 

In 1525, Luther marries Katharina von Bora, a former nun. But that was only one of his actions that allowed the clergymen to reconstitute a relation to women – albeit an ambiguous one.

This is the untranslated version of the article « Une femme et six enfants » published in Les Collections de Histoire n° 75, april-june 2017.

« Kill them, for the Lord knows those who are His! » The well-known phrase is said to have been proclaimed during the siege of Béziers, in 1209. During twenty years, they fought a bloody battle, and doing so, they made up their own enemy.

This is the untranslated version of the article « La croisade : une affaire très politique » published in L'Histoire n° 430, december 2016.

Great-Britain kicked the trend off in 1851; between 1851 and 1914, some 140 giant exhibitions took place in various countries. They contributed both to shrinking the world, and to reinforcing the prestige of their changing hosts.

This is the untranslated version of the article « La folie des Expositions universelles » published in L'Histoire n° 425, july-august 2016.

For a long time, being a genius had to do with the divine and the supernatural. But the very concept of « genius » was fashioned in the xviiith century. For two hundred years now, societies have tried to explain the phenomenon, with a great amount of diverse hypotheses.

This is the untranslated version of the article « Qu'est-ce qu'un génie ? » published in L'Histoire n° 422,  april 2016.

From the 13th century on, the situation of Jews in Western Europe worsened. As a result, more and more emigrated to Poland, so that by the xviiith century, Poland was home to half the Jews worldwide. There, as they lived protected by kings and noblemen, Jews benefitted from an autonomous status, allowing them to live a prosperous economic and cultural life for several centuries.

This is the untranslated version of the article
« De l'âge d'or au temps des pogroms », Anthony Polonsky, L'Histoire n° 421, march 2016.