Theodore Zeldin’s Followers (202)

Theodore Zeldin

Born

in Palestinian Territory, Occupied

August 22, 1933

Genre

Philosophy, History, Anthropology

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Theodore Zeldin CBE, President of the Oxford Muse Foundation, is a Palestinean 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 anot Theodore Zeldin CBE, President of the Oxford Muse Foundation, is a Palestinean 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. ...more

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Average rating: 4.0 · 2,863 ratings · 315 reviews · 75 distinct works • Similar authors

	An Intimate History of Humanity 4.11 avg rating — 1,706 ratings — published 1994 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hidden Pleasures of Life: A New Way of Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future 4.04 avg rating — 555 ratings — published 2014 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives 3.58 avg rating — 368 ratings — published 1998 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The French 3.42 avg rating — 97 ratings — published 1973 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	France, 1848-1945: Politics and Anger 3.96 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1979 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	France, 1848-1945: Ambition and Love 3.83 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1973 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A History of French Passions: Anxiety and Hypocrisy (Vol 5) 4.44 avg rating — 16 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A History of French Passions 1848-1945 3.87 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1977 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happiness (Picador Books) 3.24 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1988 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	[The Hidden Pleasures of Life: A New Way of Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future] [By: Theodore Zeldin] [January, 2016] 3.75 avg rating — 8 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Theodore Zeldin (?)

“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

16 likes

“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

13 likes

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

10 likes

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Theodore Zeldin’s Followers (202)

Theodore Zeldin

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