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Theodore Zeldin

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born

August 22, 1933 in Palestinian Territory, Occupied

gender

male

genre

Philosophy, History, Social Sciences

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Theodore Zeldin CBE, President of the Oxford Muse Foundation, is an English philosopher, sociologist, historian, writer and public speaker. Zeldin was first known as a historian of France but is today probably most famous internationally as the author of An Intimate History of Humanity (1994), a book which probes the personal preoccupations of people in many different civilisations, both in the past and in the present; it illuminates the way emotions, curiosities, relationships and fears have evolved through the centuries, and how they might have evolved differently. Since then he has focused on how work can be made less boring and frustrating, how conversation can be less superficial, and how individuals can be more honest with one another...more Theodore Zeldin CBE, President of the Oxford Muse Foundation, is an English philosopher, sociologist, historian, writer and public speaker. Zeldin was first known as a historian of France but is today probably most famous internationally as the author of An Intimate History of Humanity (1994), a book which probes the personal preoccupations of people in many different civilisations, both in the past and in the present; it illuminates the way emotions, curiosities, relationships and fears have evolved through the centuries, and how they might have evolved differently. Since then he has focused on how work can be made less boring and frustrating, how conversation can be less superficial, and how individuals can be more honest with one another, putting their masks aside.

Zeldin's masterpiece is "A History of French Passions" (originally published as "France, 1848-1945" in the Oxford History of Modern Europe), an idiosyncratic work examining the ambitions and frustrations, intellectual and imaginative life, tastes and prejudices of a vast range of people. The idea of France as a common unity is not easily discernible in this multi-volume book, and there is very little about politics in the conventional sense, although there are essays on the national appeal of Bonapartism and other cultural elements of French national politics.

The Oxford Muse Foundation (www.oxfordmuse.com) was formed by Zeldin in 2001. It describes its aims as being "to pioneer new methods to improve personal, work and intercultural relationships in ways that satisfy both private and public values." One of its principal projects is the Muse Portrait Database. Individuals are free to submit their own self-portraits, including whatever they want the world to know about them. However, many of the portraits are written by another person in the "voice" of the subject, as the result of a conversation between the two. The Oxford Muse claims that, through such conversations, it can help people "to clarify their tastes, attitudes and goals in many different aspects of life; and to sum up the conclusions they have drawn from their experiences in their own words." A selection of these portraits can be found in "Guide to an Unknown City" (2004), which contains the writings of a wide variety of Oxford residents, and in "Guide to an Unknown University" (2006), which, Zeldin claimed, 'allowed professors, students, alumni, administrators and maintenance staff to reveal what they do not normally tell one another.

In 2007, Zeldin was appointed to a committee advising the French government of Nicolas Sarkozy on labour market reforms.(less)

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Books by Theodore Zeldin

Average rating: 3.94 · 352 ratings · 54 reviews · 15 distinct works

	An Intimate History of Humanity 4.11 avg rating — 274 ratings — published 1995 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives 3.26 avg rating — 43 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	The French 3.53 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1973 — 8 editions	My rating:
	France, 1848-1945: Politics and Anger 3.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1979 — 2 editions	My rating:
	A History of French Passions: Volume 4 - Taste and Corruption 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1980	My rating:
	France, 1848-1945: Anxiety and Hypocrisy 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	France, 1848-1945: Ambition, Love and Politics Vol 1 3.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	My rating:
	A History of French Passions 1848-1945: Volume II: Intellect, Taste, and Anxiety by Theodore Zeldin, Zeldin 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1977 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Happiness 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1988 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Une Histoire Du Monde Au Xi Xe Siècle by Theodore Zeldin, Paul Balta, Régis Bénichi 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2005	My rating:

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Quotes by Theodore Zeldin

“...literature must always be about gloom of one sort or another, on the principle that there is nothing interesting to be said about happy people.”
― Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity

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“To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking that they control it, wish to influence its direction.”
― Theodore Zeldin

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“life could have been different if the meetings which have decided its course had been less silent, superficial or routine, if more thoughts had been exchanged, if humanity had been more able to show itself in them”
― Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity

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Theodore's Fans (2)

Theodore Zeldin

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